Cancer News, Treatment and Research

A trio of executives from the Merced, California-based non-profit known as Firm Build have pleaded no contest in regards to the charges filed against them outlining their use of unsuspecting high school kids to remove asbestos from a decaying building. According to the Merced Sun-Star, the three men – Rudy Buendia III, 50, Patrick Bowman, 46, and Joseph Cuellar, 73 – pleaded no contest to “felony treating, handling or disposing of asbestos in a manner which caused an unreasonable risk of serious injury to the nine students, with knowing or reckless disregard for the risk.” The men also pleaded no contest to other non-related felony charges. As a result, a plea agreement was reached and Buendia, Bowman, and Cuellar are scheduled to be sentenced in July 12. The agreed upon sentence will be three years and eight months in prison. They are likely to serve about half that time, the Sun-Star article notes. Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II voiced his satisfaction with the plea agreement, saying: “We feel very vindicated by the nature of these pleas. We believe it validates everything we’ve said and done for the last several years.” The men were charged with using at-risk high school students from a local vocational program to remove and dispose of some 1,000 linear feet of pipe insulation and additional tank insulation at the 2245 Jetstream Drive building in Atwater, California. Evidence shows the defendants knew the building contained asbestos but allowed the students and others to proceed with the task, failing to teach them proper removal methods and providing no protection for them to wear. Morse said his heart goes out to those who suffered asbestos exposure during the incident, and he fears that they could develop future health problems because of the exposure, including the development of diseases like mesothelioma . “Because these were ‘at-risk’ kids, they were not deemed as worthy of the protection that should have been afforded them in a school program,” stressed Morse.