Key Sentencings This Week After Freedom Spill

Six former Freedom Industries officials are set to be sentenced this month on pollution charges two years after the chemical spill into the Elk River in Charleston. The first to be sentenced are ex-Freedom plant manager Michael Burdette today and environmental consultant Robert Reynolds on Wednesday. Each faces up to a year in prison and a minimum $2,500 fine. The company itself faces up to $900,000 in fines. Sentencings also are later this month for ex-Freedom officials William Tis, Charles Herzing, Dennis Farrell and, lastly, Gary Southern.
Southern faces the harshest penalty: up to three years in prison and $300,000 in fines.