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A4 The Daily Commercial Monday, May 24, 2010
I N M E M O RY SPILL
From A1
the bottom, where its flow
Obituaries up the pipe can be con- Workers started
trolled. running a series of
Lucia G. White But if gas bubbles invade
Mrs. Lucia G. White, 95, of the setting cement, they tests to check if the
Leesburg, FL passed away at can form a channel for
Leesburg Regional Medical pressurized gas and oil to
cement and casing
Center on Sat, May 22, 2010. surge uncontrollably up could stand up to
Mrs. White was born in the well, usually around
Rutherford, NY and moved the casing. The cement sufficient pressure.
to Leesburg, FL in 1972 from must be strong enough to The first tests of
Garden City, NJ. Retired sec- withstand up to 5,000
retary from Minneola Public pounds of pressure per outward, positive
Schools and was currently square inch, to keep the pressure showed no
serving as the secretary for well walls from collapsing.
the Lone Oak Cemetery “Cement is cheap, and it problems.
fixes a lot of problems, but
Association. She is survived
it’s not a good place to cut
by her daughter, Marilyn of aggregate that’s used,”
corners,” Beck said. Many
(Larry) Forbes, and 2 grand- oil and gas companies will said Brian Turmail,
children, Beverly and Doug scrimp, though, if they spokesman for the
Forbes. She is preceded in don’t think they need all Associated General
death by her husband, API the ingredients in the Contractors of America.
Douglas and her son, Dick. n this July 19, 2006 file photo, David Bates, who says he was slapped, kicked and had a plastic bag placed cement, he said. Cement is Oil companies test the
Services for Mrs. White will over his head during interrogations by Chicago police in 1983, criticizes the contents of a special often squeezed in later to thickness and strength of
be held on Tues, May 25, prosecutor's report into allegations of torture by members of the Chicago Police Department. Jury try to fill gaps, but Beck cement in wells by shoot-
2010 at 11:00 a.m. at the selection is scheduled to begin in the trial of former police Lt. Jon Burge on federal obstruction of justice said the success rate of this ing sound waves into the
chapel of Beyers Funeral and perjury charges. He's accused of lying when he denied in a civil lawsuit that he and other detectives remedial work is low. cement. This kind of test,
Home, 1123 W. Main St, had tortured anyone. And if cement was part called a sonic logging test,
Leesburg with an entomb- of the cause of the wasn’t run on April 20 at
ment to follow at Lone Oak Deepwater Horizon catas- Deepwater Horizon. A
Halliburton manager said
Jury selection begins in
Cemetery. Visitation will be trophe, it also could be
held from 10:00-11:00 a.m. part of the remedy. Two it’s the most realistic way
prior to the service. Online relief wells are being of testing the quality of
drilled to intersect the the cement bond, but a BP
condolences may be left at
manager said pressure tests
Ill. police torture trial
www.beyersfuneralhome.co leaking well and plug it
with cement. are better and log tests are
m. used only if there’s already
———
Halliburton was com- sign of a problem.
Death Notices pleting the final cement Either way, these tests
KAREN HAWKINS charges because the statute tured.
Associated Press work on the exploratory are not 100 percent reli-
Margaret Cartwright of limitations has run out. The Republican governor
well beneath Deepwater able. Sometimes, oil com-
CHICAGO — For decades, The police department fired later cleared all of death row, panies don’t discover a
Margaret P. Cartwright, 73, Horizon in the wee hours
black men across Chicago him in 1993 for mistreat- saying the torture of inno- bad cementing job until it
of Astatula, died Friday, May of April 20. It added an
described torture at the ment of a suspect, but did cent men at the hands of fails.
21, 2010. Central Florida initial cement plug to the
hands of former police Lt. not press charges. A decade Chicago police had tainted ———
Cremation, Tavares. well to act as a cap until a
Jon Burge and his officers, later, then-Gov. George Ryan the state’s entire death There can be early warn-
and for decades no one lis- later production phase.
released four condemned penalty system. ing signs, though. Federal
tened. Suspects landed in jail Workers started running
men he said Burge had “How many more cases of regulators have known for
and even on death row for a series of tests to check if
extracted confessions from wrongful convictions have the cement and casing years that a condition
crimes they say they didn’t using torture. to occur before we can all called sustained casing
commit after Burge and his could stand up to suffi-
The allegations of torture agree that the system is bro- cient pressure. The first pressure — usually gas
men coerced confessions and coerced confessions ken?” Ryan said at the time. tests of outward, positive caught between the casing
using terrifying methods In July 2006, two special
eventually led to a still- pressure showed no prob- and well wall — is a major
including suffocation, a
standing moratorium on prosecutors named to look lems. problem that typically sig-
form of waterboarding and
electric shocks. Illinois’ death penalty and into the allegations said evi- In the first sign of trou- nals bad cement work.
Purcell Funeral Home Finally those complaints
from the 1970s and 80s are
the emptying of death row
— moves credited with re-
dence indicated that dozens
of suspects had been mis-
ble, though, the well then
failed a negative pressure
In the August 2007
blowout, investigators
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1960 igniting the global fight treated during the 1970s and cited tests showing high
Crematory Services Available being taken seriously — and test, where internal fluid
it could be Burge’s own against capital punishment. ’80s but that the cases were pressure is reduced, casing pressures that could
352-793-4531 words that send him to But they also earned too old to bring charges. The according to congressional have indicated suspect
114 W. Noble Ave. • Bushnell, FL 33513
prison. Chicago a reputation as a statute of limitations on the testimony from a BP PLC cement work. The plat-
Jury selection begins haven for rogue cops, a offenses they identified in executive. It showed differ- form owner reported a
Monday in Burge’s trial on place where police could the report is three years. ent pressures in two areas, problem to federal regula-
federal obstruction of justice abuse suspects without Two years later, Burge was indicating an unseen leak tors, but nothing was done
and perjury charges. He’s notice or punishment. charged with lying under somewhere in the well. before the blowout, the
accused of lying when he The scandal has extended Despite the test, man- report said.
oath in a civil lawsuit in
denied in a civil lawsuit that to the highest levels of city agers eventually decided to More than 8,000 of the
which he denied he knew
he and other detectives had replace drilling fluid with 22,000 offshore wells on
and county government, about or took part in beat-
tortured anyone. He faces a seawater and set a final federal leases, most of
and the trial’s witness lists ings, threats and torture
maximum of 45 years in cement plug so the well them in the Gulf, show
include Chicago Mayor methods such as “bagging”
prison if convicted of all could be mothballed pend- sustained pressure, accord-
charges. Richard Daley, who was — forcing a confession by a ing to government reports.
Cook County state’s attor- ing a decision to possibly
Burge has pleaded not putting a plastic typewriter begin production drilling. This month, in a move
guilty to the charges and is ney during Burge’s tenure, cover over a suspect’s head. in the works long before
fellow former State’s And while it is not yet
free on bond. Other alleged victims clear what sections of the the Deepwater Horizon
Authorities have, to a Attorney Dick Devine, and explosion, regulators wrote
spoke of beatings, gun casing or cement may
degree, acknowledged that Daley’s predecessor in the in the Federal Register that
threats and a mysterious have failed — or why — it
Burge may have committed mayor’s office, Jane Byrne. the oil and gas industry in
black box used to emit elec- is known that the blowout
these horrifying acts, but he Prosecutors are expected the Gulf has “suffered seri-
tric shocks. One said his tor- ignited and exploded
does not face torture-related to call former police officers before the last plug was ous accidents as a result of
and at least a half dozen mentors poured soda into
set. high sustained casing pres-
men who say they were tor- his nose. sure, and the lack of prop-
Do you know someone making a The police department In the aftermath of the
tured by Burge or those blowout, questions have er control and monitoring
difference in their community? under his command. The fired Burge in 1993, and he
been raised about the safe- of these pressures.”
Nominate them for the more than 100 victims say now lives in retirement in New rules take effect
ty of nitrogen-laced
“Making a difference” award at the torture started in the Florida. He’s been diagnosed cement foam. But several June 3. But they take a
1970s and persisted until the with prostate cancer, and his conservative watch-and-
www.lakesumterfunerals.com ’90s at police stations on the trial was delayed for months
cementing experts told the
wait approach and
AP it is a sound technique.
city’s South and West sides. while he recovered from Halliburton says it has demand only routines
Burge is the first Chicago treatment. used such a mix on scores already carried out around
officer accused of torture to The 62-year-old Army vet- of wells and told a con- the industry: a manage-
be criminally charged in the eran wasn’t prosecuted for gressional committee that ment program with moni-
case. torture even after police offi- the cementing on the toring and diagnostic test-
“I’m just glad it came to cials agreed that he’d partici- Deepwater Horizon job ing. If operators discover
trial in my lifetime, because pated in it, and some in the was successful. sustained pressure, they
it looked like it wasn’t going legal community say he Halliburton did not must notify MMS of plans
to happen,” said Jo Ann wouldn’t be facing charges respond to AP requests for to fix it.
Patterson, whose son Aaron comment. There are no new record-
at all if it wasn’t for U.S.
Patterson was one of the In the wake of the acci- keeping or reporting
Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
four whom Ryan freed from dent, some experts support requirements in the new
“There were a lot of peo- mandatory uniform
death row because he rules, which are backed by
ple who could’ve done cement standards for
believed he had been tor- industry. In the rule-mak-
something about it and did- underwater wells. “When ing documents, regulators
n’t,” said Jon Loevy, an you change the composi- — long accused of being
attorney who’s represented tion, it should meet a cer- too cozy with the industry
several alleged torture vic- tain standard. Such stan- — said the regulations
tims. “There were a lot of dards exist for the building
would cost the entire
lost opportunities, and final- construction industry,”
industry only $5 million,
ly Mr. Fitzgerald’s office is said Surendra Shah,
compared with the
going to do something Northwestern University
engineering professor and “impracticable and exceed-
about it.” ingly costly” $2 billion
Victims, lawyers and director of the Center for
Advanced Cement-Based alternative of fixing the
police officers said they have wells outright.
Materials at Evanston, Ill.
mixed feelings about the Elmer Danenberger, a “Unfortunately, this is
trial. Some, like Patterson, retired chief of offshore yet another crisis in a long
are just glad it’s finally hap- regulatory programs for line of accidents caused by
pening. David Bates, who MMS, told a congressional cementing problems in
says he was tortured by men committee this month: drilling,” said U.S. Rep.
under Burge’s command, “An industry standard Diana DeGette, D-Colo., a
called the trial a “win-win.” should be developed to member of the Energy
But attorney Flint Taylor, address cementing prob- Committee looking into
who’s represented alleged lems, how they can be pre- the cause of the blowout.
victims over the last 20 vented, and the actions MMS refused to answer
years, isn’t satisfied, point- that should be taken when specific questions about its
ing to the dozens of alleged they do occur.” cementing policies, includ-
Many construction proj- ing why it took so long to
victims still in prison.
ects use concrete hardened
“There really can’t be any craft the pressure regula-
with sand and gravel
full justice until the torturers tions and whether MMS
aggregate, but cement is
are all in jail, and the torture the glue that holds it has issued any citations
victims are released and together. On federal proj- for cement problems.
given fair trials,” he said. ects, “just about every- “All of these questions
Burge’s trial in front of thing is regulated, from are questions that we are
U.S. District Judge Joan the thickness of the con- reviewing,” said Interior
Humphrey Lefkow is expect- crete, to the strength of Department spokeswoman
ed to last six weeks. the concrete, to the type Kendra Barkoff.
