A Santa Rosa auto wrecking company faces a 23-count criminal complaint alleging illegal storage and disposal of hazardous waste, including car batteries and motor oil, and the removal of police surveillance cameras.
Charges against the owners of Cream's Dismantling and Scrap Inc. were filed Wednesday after an investigation of more than three months by Santa Rosa police detectives into possible violations of environmental laws.
The bulk of the charges accuse Joseph James Cream Jr., 47, of improper storage, transportation and disposal of vehicle fluids and metals such as lead at his family's Copperhill Lane facility from 2009 to this year.
Cream and his sister, Jan Rosen, 58, also are charged with felony grand theft, accused of ordering employees to take down police surveillance cameras mounted on the property of neighboring business, Nordby Construction.
Cream, Rosen and their father, Joseph N. Cream Sr., 85, are charged additionally with conspiracy for allegedly failing to prevent damaged batteries from leaching dangerous compounds into ground water and for storing gas and other hazardous materials in unmarked locations.
"Based on the investigation from police we feel the charges are warranted," prosecutor Bill Brockley said Monday.
The three will be arraigned Oct. 3.
A call to Cream's Dismantling was not returned Monday but the owners' attorney, Therese Cannata, said the complaint was "an extreme overcharge," a matter that should have been handled by environmental regulators.
Cannata said her clients will be vindicated as facts emerge in the coming months. "It's a typical family business with nothing criminal about their operation," Cannata said. "This doesn't rise to a misdemeanor, much less a felony."
Cream's Dismantling has faced legal challenges in the past.
In 2004, Joseph Cream and one of his managers were arrested on suspicion of illegally selling and disposing of gasoline siphoned from abandoned vehicles. At the time, the company had contracts with Santa Rosa, Sonoma County and the California Highway Patrol to crush old cars. The city and county cancelled their contracts and the company paid $25,000 to settle the case and avoid criminal charges.
Also in 2004, the company pleaded no contest to violating state hazardous waste laws and agreed to pay a $10,000 fine. The charges stemmed from a massive fire at the wrecking yard in 2003 that spread to a neighboring truck yard.
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