A 46-year-old man who posed as a certified Colorado asbestos inspector has been sentenced to 40 days in jail and ordered to pay $5,000 for misleading state officials and forging lab results.
The Colorado Attorney General’s Office said in a news release that the sentence against Michael Merit follows his September guilty plea to causing or contributing to a hazardous substance incident.
The Colorado State grand jury indicted Merit in April, saying he triggered an emergency asbestos incident in Elizabeth.
Merit, of Parker, was hired by a demolition company, the Resource Center, to carry out asbestos testing on mobile homes in Elizabeth. Merit told the company he was a certified asbestos inspector.
During Merit’s employment, his primary work was testing the mobile home park in Elizabeth.
But instead of taking a bulk sample as he was supposed to do, Merit incorrectly took air samples and falsified lab results stating no asbestos was present in any of the mobile homes.
Three of the mobile homes were demolished before the Colorado Department of Public Health halted the demolitions after receiving a tip that the homes contained asbestos.
State inspectors discovered the mobile home park contained more than 160 square feet of asbestos-containing material and 260 linear feet of asbestos-containing material.
The discovery was classified as an “emergency circumstance” involving the sudden discharge of a hazardous substance.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
