ANDERSON, S.C. (WSPA) – An Anderson business owner admitted to changing a university’s lab results and emailing false documents according to the US Attorney’s Office.
A United States District Judge sentenced Brian Thomas Rogers, 53, owner of Rogers Environmental, LLC, to three years of probation after he pleaded guilty to making a false statement in a Clean Air Act Document.
Evidence presented to the court showed Rogers Environmental was contracted in May 2018 to perform an asbestos building inspection at Pratt Hall on the campus of Anderson University.
Investigators said Roger’s report stated that no asbestos-containing material was found in the objects sampled. Contractors commenced with demolition and renovation based on the negative survey.
On June 20, 2018, a sub-contractor suspected material underneath some floor tile contained asbestos while removing flooring from a bathroom according to investigators.
The court document said Rogers was called back to the site. He collected two samples and later provided an email with a report stating the samples did not contain asbestos.
A couple of days later, the sub-contractor collected their own samples from the same room after hearing about the negative results, investigators said. The lab report indicated asbestos was present in his samples.
The court document stated that the sub-contractor notified a general contractor due to the differences between both contractors’ results. A new building inspection company resampled the entire building.
On June 25, 2018, the new company found that almost 29 samples had positive asbestos results according to the court document. The total amount of asbestos found was almost 3,620 square feet.
Investigators interviewed Rogers who admitted to changing the original lab results on one sample from 20 percent asbestos to none detected.
In addition to his probation, Rogers was sentenced to perform 100 hours of community service at Anderson University and six months of an overnight curfew. He was also fined $25,500.
The district judge said Rogers will satisfy the fine in payments of $750 per month for almost three years.