Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Caine Syndrome

Here is the latest on the Oil Executive's wife who unknowingly opened a package at home, which exploded in her face. Investigators are turning their attention on her brother.


Steve
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Investigation into bomb that injured woman focuses on sibling

By BRIAN ROGERS
Houston Chronicle
July 21, 2010, 6:32PM

The brother of a Houston woman injured earlier this month when a homemade bomb exploded as she opened a package in her backyard is being investigated for his connection to the crime by federal authorities, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Clair Audrey Wolf was charged Friday with nine environmental crimes stemming from waste oil and industrial equipment abandoned in a wooded area in the 3200 block of Hurley, Assistant Harris County District Attorney Roger Haseman said.

If convicted of the charges, which include illegal dumping and violations of the Waste Oil Act, the 64-year-old Wolf faces a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Haseman told state District Judge Joan Campbell that Wolf is being investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in connection with the bomb that injured Vennie Wolf about 6:30 p.m. July 9, after she opened a shoebox-sized package that had been dropped off at her home in the 2100 block of Seamist Court, in northwest Houston.

Wolf, 58, was taken to Memorial Hermann Northwest Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. She since has been released.

Haseman said authorities began investigating Wolf in the 1990s for possible environmental violations related to collecting and recycling hazardous wastes, such as oil, on land that had been inherited by Wolf and his two sisters.

At the time, Haseman said, Wolf took responsibility for a business in which he was paid to discard the material.

In 2007 Wolf said he would clean up the area after more complaints came in about the property, which is the size of a city block. After the clean-up effort stalled that year, the city began cleaning it up at a cost Haseman estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Haseman said Wolf was being sued by his sister for money lost to the cleanup.

Haseman said the environmental charges were filed after investigators realized Wolf had been arrested last week for animal cruelty, a possible probation violation of a St. Augustine County charge.

Haseman said investigators previously had been unable to locate the man.

Wolf's court-appointed attorney, Jeff Hale, declined comment.

The judge kept Wolf's bail at $80,000 and ruled that he have no contact with his sister if he is released.

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