The Delaware County, Ind., Prosecutor's Office and the Indiana Attorney General are filing criminal charges against William and Michael Gruppe for violations of the state's environmental laws and rules. The Gruppe's own and operate the Muncie-based tire recycling company CR3.
The Attorney General has been embroiled in civil litigation against CR3 on behalf of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management last August after piles of whole and processed waste tires illegally stored at the facility ignited and burned for several days.
"The legal problems of this company's owners has just escalated," said Steve Carter, Indiana’s Attorney General.
"Pursing criminal charges is rare, but necessary in this case where there has been such apparent disregard for the state's environmental laws, which resulted in placing the citizens of Delaware County in harm."
Delaware County Prosecutor Richard Reed and Attorney General Steve Carter decided to file criminal charges based on the investigative efforts of the Attorney General's Office, the Prosecutor's Office and IDEM.
"IDEM's waste tire regulations are designed to meet Indiana's waste tire challenges by encouraging the processing and reuse of tires, and we worked very hard to help CR3 comply with these regulations," said Lori Kaplan, IDEM’s commissioner. "When our compliance efforts were not successful and the facility caught fire, our criminal investigation unit went to work and helped build the case that led to today's charges. We regret that it's come to this, but we feel this action is necessary to protect Delaware County residents from facing any additional human health or environmental risk."
The Attorney General, on behalf of IDEM successfully sought civil sanctions against CR3 last August, which included an immediate disposal of all waste tires on and off site of the property and to reimburse costs incurred from fighting the fire. A month later, the state filed a Contempt of Court motion against the company for failing to comply with the earlier court order.
The state noted in its motion that CR3 had only removed a portion of tires from the site and had not completed a report to the state outlining its activities for removal.
William and Michael Gruppe are charged with six counts each, which include creating a nuisance, and disposal and storage of waste tires without a valid certificate of registration. All charges are D felonies that could result in 6 months to 3 years in prison and fines up to $10,000 on each count.