
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 14, 1990                   TAG: 9003143104
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A/2   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ANCHORAGE, ALASKA                                 LENGTH: Medium

ALCOHOL-TEST TESTIMONY IN OIL SPILL CASE DEBUNKED

Two of Joseph Hazelwood's expert witnesses took aim at the prosecution's alcohol expert, testifying that belated blood-alcohol tests cannot prove the Exxon Valdez skipper was drunk when his ship went aground.

Alcohol experts Michael Hlstala and Thomas Burr cast doubt on testimony by prosecution expert Richard Prouty that Hazelwood probably was drunk when his ship rammed a charted reef.

"It's virtually impossible to go back and get meaningful information about blood-alcohol levels," said Hlstala, a professor of physiology at Washington State University in Seattle. "Once you are beyond a few hours, it's impossible to make any sense of an extrapolation."

Prouty calculated Hazelwood's level of intoxication by calculations in a method called "retrograde extrapolation." He concluded the skipper probably had a blood-alcohol reading of .14 at the time of the shipwreck.

He based his opinion on a blood test taken 10 1/2 hours afterward, which showed Hazelwood had a blood alcohol level of .061, lower than the Alaska state limit for drunken driving.

The lack of a timely blood test has been a prosecution problem from the beginning of the case.

Circumstantial evidence includes testimony from crew members who saw Hazelwood drinking in Valdez that day. But they said he negotiated a precarious gangway to the ship without a misstep and appeared sober as he gave orders.

Three witnesses, two of them Coast Guard investigators, have said they smelled alcohol on Hazelwood's breath, but defense lawyers suggest that was the result of the skipper's having drunk a low-alcohol brew called Moussy Beer while on the ship.

Hazelwood, 43, was the only crew member from the Exxon Valdez charged criminally in the wreck, which spilled nearly 11 million gallons of Alaska North Slope crude oil into the crystal waters of Prince William Sound.

He is accused of criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, operating a vessel while intoxicated and negligent discharge of oil. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 7\ years in prison and $61,000 in fines.

Hlstala testified Tuesday that most experts consider the technique of "retrograde extrapolation" used by Prouty, the prosecution expert, useful only for calculating back two to three hours - not 10 1/2 hours.

Burr, an alcohol consultant and former police crime lab specialist from Minneapolis, disputed Prouty's findings, saying that if Hazelwood drank anything after the accident, "there's absolutely no validity" in Prouty's results.

by CNB