Chemical Spill Hearing Set for Today

A court hearing is scheduled over whether prosecutors should recuse themselves in the case of former executives 

  charged in a chemical spill.

The Freedom Industries hearing will be Monday at 1:30 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Charleston.

Former Freedom executives Gary Southern and Dennis Farrell claim U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin’s office has a conflict of interest because its employees and their families were victims of the company’s spill. The Jan. 9, 2014, incident left 300,000 residents without tap water for days.

Prosecutors say a recusal would be against public interest and fly in the face of the law.

Judge Thomas Johnston is hearing the case.

Southern, Farrell, the company itself and four other Freedom officials face pollution charges. Southern also faces fraud charges related to Freedom’s bankruptcy case.