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A U.S. District judge has sentenced a Clearwater architect and a Safety Harbor contractor found guilty of violating the Clean Air Act in connection with the mishandling of asbestos on a work site.
Architect Stephen J. Spencer, 49, was sentenced to probation and 30 hours of community service. Spencer had been found guilty this year of two counts of failing to have a trained asbestos supervisor on the site. A federal jury acquitted him on five other related charges.
Also sentenced was Guy Gannaway, 54, who was found guilty on eight counts and acquitted on three. He was sentenced to 90 days in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release and home detention.
The two had been partners with developer John Loder, whose Sun Vista Development Group rode high during the real estate boom, buying four large properties with the intent of turning them into high-end condominiums.
Loder and Sun Vista crashed.
Two of his projects — Bay Pines Mobile Home Park in Seminole and Snell Isle Club Apartments in St. Petersburg — never got off the ground. Last year, Loder, Spencer and Gannaway were accused of violating federal laws in connection with disposal of asbestos from two others. One, called Barefoot Beach Resort, was in Indian Shores, and the other was in South Pasadena.
A jury found Loder not guilty of five charges, and the court declared a mistrial on two others.
Although Spencer and Gannaway were found guilty in connection with mishandling asbestos on the Indian Shores project, the light sentences indicated that the government had been overzealous in its prosecution of the men, Clearwater attorney George Tragos said. Tragos represents Spencer.
"There was no need to prosecute Mr. Spencer criminally since they had already paid a fine in connection with the violations," Tragos said. "The government arbitrarily picked Mr. Spencer and tried to make an example of him."
Tragos noted that this was his client's first Clean Air Act citation.
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