Exxon Knew Skipper Was Unfit, U.S. Says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska —  New court documents allege that fired Exxon Valdez Capt. Joseph Hazelwood “regularly hosted drinking parties” on tankers before the Alaska oil spill last year and that Exxon Corp. had evidence showing the skipper and the helmsman were unfit for duty when the tanker hit Bligh Reef.

The Justice Department filed 300 pages of documents in its criminal case against Exxon as U.S. District Court closed late Thursday.

Prosecutors in the environmental crimes section later released the two-inch stack of papers filed to substantiate the criminal charges against the oil giant.

Defense lawyers are seeking dismissal of a five-count indictment charging Exxon and its subsidiary, Exxon Shipping Co., with violating the Clean Water Act, the Refuse Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Ports and Waterways Safety Act and the Dangerous Cargo Act by spilling 11 million gallons of oil, killing tens of thousands of animals and operating its tanker unsafely in March, 1989.

Justice Department lawyers provided the most detailed information yet alleging that Exxon knew it had serious crew problems but did nothing to rectify them.

In earlier filings, Exxon sought to absolve the corporation of any criminal responsibility and to blame the oil spill on the skipper.

Prosecutors said, however, that crew wrongdoing and incompetence can be traced to Exxon managers, lawyers, doctors and even executives--even though no individuals are charged with crimes.

The Justice Department said that in 1985 Exxon became aware that Hazelwood had been routinely commanding tankers in a drunken state since 1982. It said that, four years before the spill, Hazelwood was diagnosed as suffering from episodic alcohol abuse and dysthymia, a mental disorder characterized by depression, mood disturbances, poor concentration, difficulty in making decisions and impaired job functioning.

Nineteen months before the spill, according to court documents, the Exxon legal department became aware “of allegations that Hazelwood had regularly hosted drinking parties aboard ships . . . and that, on one occasion, while leaving Valdez, he went below to his room for a drink and left the third mate to navigate the ship.”