The Plains All American Pipeline Company’s criminal trial — in which it faces 15 charges of criminal negligence related to the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill — took an acerbic turn last week when defense Attorney Gary Lincenberg asked a witness why she’d winked at county prosecutor Kevin Weichbrod on her way out of the courtroom. The witness was Elsa Arndt, who was a senior planner with the county’s Office of Emergency Management (OEM) on the day of the oil spill. Her testimony previously suggested Plains’ response to the spill was delayed and its earlier spill drills somewhat half-baked.
Judge James Herman quickly dismissed Lincenberg’s question as incredibly inappropriate, but Lincenberg seemed determined to question Arndt’s reliability as a witness. Later, Lincenberg also pointed out — in the absence of jurors — that Arndt wasn’t following OEM’s emergency plan to a T, a shortcoming that hurt her credibility. Prosecutor Weichbrod had a simple rebuttal: OEM is not on trial.
Meanwhile, the prosecution has laid out a series of warning signs Plains seemed to dismiss on the morning of the spill — red flags before anyone saw oil in the ocean. That means jurors have also gotten a comprehensive lesson in Plains' oil operations, from the desk arrangement of the control room in Midland, Texas, to the particulars of the pumps and valves in the Santa Maria region. Although that background tended to elicit a few pairs of droopy eyelids, the pre-spill timeline has gotten progressively more interesting.