


Depending on which side of the Missoula courtroom you sat, Harding was either tenacious or obnoxious. But regardless of what you call her, she was doing what any good defense lawyer would do and that’s keeping the opposition from straying from what the judge says the trial is all about.

In this case, that path is very narrow.

To the pain of many Libby residents in the spectators seats, the government cannot address the decades of dangerous working practices at Grace’s mine on Zonolite Mountain. Nor can prosecutors discuss that the world-wide chemical company reportedly allowed thousands of pounds of asbestos fibers from dust being spewed from a vermiculite processing mill six miles away to inundate the tiny town of Libby.

Rather, the government must focus only on harm that occurred after the federal Clean Air Act and its “knowing-endangerment” provision was enacted in 1990.

Harding repeatedly interrupted the questioning by federal prosecutors Kris McLean and Kevin Cassidy and griped that the question wasn’t relevant.

Judge Donald Molloy played referee in his long, black robe and told McLean and Cassidy to “be precise about the dates these events happened.” But more than half the time, Molloy overruled Grace’s second chair lawyer and allowed the question to be answered

The jury got its first peak at some Libby residents reportedly sickened from exposure to asbestos at the mine, in the air or soil or from the Zonolite insulation leaking into the house.

Kelly O’Brien, who worked at a mental health center in Libby, told jurors that the vermiculite was all over.
“When the washer or drier were on the spin cycle, it would shake the insulation from the ceiling and there would be piles of dust on the machine,” he explained.

Seven of the witnesses said they had asbestos-related diseases, four had lost spouses or siblings.

Vernon Riley told of his wife, Darlene, dying of mesothelioma.
“I had her just 2 ½ years after she learned she had that cancer,” he said, his soft voice cracking.

Defense lawyer Harding asked every male whether they’d ever changed brakes on their own car or truck, a common chore for men and boys in the West. She asked three witnesses if they knew that brakes contained asbestos.

This is an amazing admission for someone representing a company that sold asbestos, because in courtrooms though out the country, the asbestos industry had denied for years that asbestos in brakes is harmful.

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Andrew Schneider