The Region - News from July 28, 1986

An executive and a former employee of a termite control firm were charged with two felony counts and a misdemeanor over the storage of about 500 gallons of pesticide containing the banned chemical ethylene dibromide in the employee’s El Monte back yard. Louis H. Gutierrez, 24, who said he had been paid $1,500 by Termite Company Inc., executive Victor Bernath, 70, to take the pesticide drums somewhere and dump them, pleaded not guilty in Rio Hondo Municipal Court, where he faces preliminary hearing Aug. 7. Bernath is expected to surrender within a few days, said a spokesman for the district attorney’s office. Gutierrez said he was unaware that the pesticide was poisonous and that he told Bernath he was dumping it in a field near Fillmore.