United States v. MacDonald & Watson Waste Oil Co.
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
933 F.2d 35 (1991)
Eugene D'Allesandro (defendant) was a hands-on president of MacDonald & Watson Waste Oil, which operated a disposal facility that lacked a permit for solid hazardous waste even though its landlord held a permit for liquid waste; D'Allesandro had twice been warned that the company's receipt of contaminated soil from other customers violated that permit. D'Allesandro was convicted of knowingly causing hazardous waste to be transported to an unpermitted facility, but the government conceded it had no evidence he actually knew about the specific shipments from Master Chemical at issue; instead, the trial court instructed the jury it could convict based solely on finding D'Allesandro was a "responsible corporate officer" with supervisory duties over the relevant activity, without requiring proof of his actual knowledge of those particular shipments.
Whether, in a crime having knowledge as an express element, a mere showing of official responsibility by a corporate officer is an adequate substitute for direct or circumstantial proof of knowledge.