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Landfill owner pleads guilty to hazardous waste, drug charges

Dave Greber/File photo Ray Skinner II of West Chester Twp. is seen here in court Thurs., May 28, 2009.

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By Dave Greber, Staff Writer Updated 3:29 PM Monday, January 25, 2010

HAMILTON — The West Chester Twp. man accused of selling drugs within sight of an elementary school and operating an illegal landfill at his home has pleaded guilty to his charges.

Ray Skinner II, 64, of 8750 Cincinnati-Dayton Road, pleaded guilty Jan. 20 to illegal storage of hazardous waste, one count of third-degree felony aggravated drug trafficking, one count of fourth-degree felony aggravated drug trafficking and one count of drug abuse, a fifth-degree felony, in Butler County Common Pleas Court.

A sentencing hearing has been set for 1 p.m., Feb. 23. Skinner faces 11½ years in prison, although plea documents state he has agreed to two years of probation, 150 hours of community service and restitution on the illegal storage of hazardous waste. The other charges are expected to be considered for sentencing next month.

Skinner was indicted May 20 by a Butler County grand jury on charges that he worked out a deal with the owners of a former Fairfield business to dump 131 tons of computer monitors and other electronic equipment in cardboard boxes on a small portion of his 85-acre property. The dumping reportedly occurred between April 2007 and June 2008, and resulted in lead contamination of surrounding soil when the boxes deteriorated, according to officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The drug charges stem from accusations that he used and sold the prescription drug Fentanyl from the property off Cincinnati-Dayton Road across the street from the former Union Elementary.

A three-day clean-up in June 2008, which cost approximately $100,000, cleared the site of any contaminants, EPA officials said.

The EPA was informed of the possible contamination in August 2007 when contractors testing the site as part of an earlier clean-up project on the family’s property noticed boxes full of broken glass.

A packing slip on one of the containers featured the name “Tri State Computers,” the successor of which was Fairfield-based Tri-E Technologies, according to EPA documents.

The co-owners of Tri-E Technologies, John Grinstead and Larry Lough, are facing charges related to the storage, disposal and transportation of hazardous waste, as well as other accusations.

They are set to be tried in Butler County Common Pleas Court in April.

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