Felony Charges Filed in 2008 UCLA Lab Fire that Killed CWA Member

Prosecutors Say Professor, University Willfully Violated OSHA Standards

A professor and the University of California are facing felony occupational safety and health violations three years after a UCLA laboratory fire killed UPTE-CWA member Sheri Sangji.

The University of California and a UCLA professor are facing unprecedented felony charges in connection with a chemistry lab fire that fatally injured UPTE-CWA Local 9119 member Sheri Sangji three years ago.

Sangji, a 23-year-old staff research assistant, was severely burned when air-sensitive chemicals burst into flames and ignited her clothing. She died 18 days after the Dec. 29, 2008, fire.

Since then, UPTE-CWA leaders have fought relentlessly for an overhaul of the university's safety and health standards, while pushing authorities to pursue Sangji's case.

"The filing of criminal charges is an important wake-up call for universities and principal investigators (PIs) who often pay less attention to safety than their counterparts in industrial labs," said Joan Lichterman of Local 9119's safety and health committee. "Universities need to ensure that their PIs have the necessary training to ensure the health and safety of employees they direct, and PIs need to be aware of their personal responsibility. They both must be held accountable when experiments go astray."

The Los Angeles Times reports that the L.A. district attorney's office brought the charges after a lengthy investigation of UCLA's lab safety practices and Sangji's training and supervision by professor and researcher Patrick Harran.

Harran and the university each are charged with three counts of willfully violating occupational safety and health standards. Specifically they are accused of failing to correct unsafe work conditions in a timely manner, to require clothing appropriate for the work and to provide proper chemical safety training.

Harran faces 4½ years in prison and the school could be fined up to $1.5 million for each of three violations. The Times' research indicates that the criminal charges are the first of their kind for an academic lab accident.

The potential penalties far exceed the $31,875 that Cal/OSHA fined UCLA in 2009 after ruling that Sangji hadn't been trained properly and wasn't wearing protective clothing.

At the time of her death, Sangji was a recent college graduate who took the laboratory job while applying to law schools. Her devastated family has been pushing investigators to bring charges, calling it the "the first step toward any kind of justice."

"It won't bring Sheri back, but we do hope this will help keep other young people safe and keep other families from being destroyed," her sister, Naveen Sangji told the Times.

But UPTE-CWA activists say attitudes, as well as safety standards, must change to truly protect workers.

In a Times letter to the editor, Local 9119 member Lynn Kessler said not all supervisors are taking UCLA's improved rules seriously. She described doing research in 2011 with radioactive material and being "harshly ridiculed by my supervisor for insisting that I receive radiation safety training, wear protective clothing and a badge dosimeter to keep track of my radiation exposure."