In the wake of the federal trial against W.R. Grace & Co., residents of Libby, Montana and other analysts are trying to understand how Grace got off the hook. Grace’s former mine in Libby produced asbestos-tainted vermiculite that is blamed for killing hundreds of Libby residents and sickening thousands more. Many of Libby’s residents have contracted a range of asbestos-related diseases in the wake of Grace’s mining activity.

Asbestos exposure is linked to diseases like asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. A local doctor that testified during the environmental crimes trial stated that he continues to diagnose Libby-area residents with asbestos diseases on a weekly basis. Some residents have developed an asbestos illness due to secondary asbestos exposure.

Libby residents had hoped that Grace would finally be brought to justice during the federal trial, but the company and former executives were all acquitted. Analysts are trying to understand why, in part so that future asbestos lawsuits may be more likely to succeed. Some analysts blame the prosecution. Andrew Schneider, a journalist who was one of the first to report on the Libby contamination back in 1999, argues that the prosecution was simply outnumbered.

“It had fewer than a dozen lawyers, investigators and support personnel. Grace fielded 50 or more and almost daily swamped the court with motions and briefs cranked out by their paralegals and junior lawyers. The prosecution had most of its team working to midnight and beyond almost every night just to respond to the avalanche of paper.”

Others blame U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, who oversaw the case. Andrea Peacock, reporter for the Missoula Independent argues that “Molloy allowed the tenor of the case to be debased. Defense attorneys mocked their opponents outright, and called the government’s attorneys and witnesses alike liars…Molloy called the prosecutors ‘bullheaded,’ and berated them for putting Locke on the stand, parroting the defense’s accusations against their witnesses and tactics.”

Now Libby residents must live with the fact that Grace was acquitted. It is a fact that Montana Senator Max Baucus is not pleased with, either. “The company W.R. Grace, in my judgment, knew what it was doing. It knew it was contaminating the town,” Baucus said. “The trial didn’t conclude like it should have.”

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