UM Grace Case

 After lunch, Paul Peronard took the stand for direct examination by government attorney Kevin Cassidy. Judge Molloy ruled before lunch that Peronard may testify about his expertise as Libby’s EPA on-site coordinator, but may not testify as an expert regarding risk assessment generally. This leaves him as a fact witness and a limited expert witness.
In [...]

EPA on-site coordinator Paul Peronard endured two and a half hours of questioning only to be told he would not be allowed to testify on any scientific information or give his opinion.
The defense lawyers tag-teamed against Peronard for the majority of the time, trying to chip holes in both his expertise and his credibility. Peronard [...]

As of 10:00 this morning the jury was not present in the courtroom and defense attorneys were questioning government witness Paul Peronard to determine the extent of testimony he would be allowed to provide. Defense objected to Peronard testifying on matters of toxicology, epidemiology, mineralogy or introducing summary reports of scientific data from the [...]

Defense attorney David Bernick continued to voir dire Mr. Peronard in an attempt to show that he is unqualified to testify as an expert witness under Federal Rules of Evidence 702 and 703. The Defense attempted to admit portions of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) website, but hearsay objections from the Prosecution were sustained [...]

One of the final issues argued today was whether Paul Peronard was an expert. Paul Peronard was the first EPA investigator to arrive in Libby after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s articles announced the asbestos problem to the country.
Under FRE 615, lay witnesses can be excluded from the courtroom . However, the rule does not apply [...]

Lawyers hit their first stumbling block Friday afternoon when they finally had a chance to ask Judge Molloy questions after the lunch recess.  At the top of the defendants’ concerns was the ambiguity of the chart Molloy designed to help jurors wade through the trial’s facts and evidence.
The defense expressed apprehension about Molloy’s decision to [...]