Ray Caldwell backers urge judge to go easy on him

Supporters of embattled Longview businessman Ray Caldwell have written letters to a federal judge, touting his good deeds and asking for leniency in Caldwells sentencing next week for 33 felonies related to illegal sewage dumping.

Suffice it to say that Ray is thought of as a community leader by me and many others, wrote John T. Claypool of Claypool Appraisal Service in his March 16 letter. It is inexplicable to me that he is in trouble for putting waste into a sewer line. In light of what he has done during his life for his family, acquaintances and community, any punishment should be minimal.

Caldwell, owner of All-Out Sewer & Drain, will be sentenced at 3 p.m. Monday at U.S. District Court in Tacoma. In December, Judge Benjamin Settle convicted Caldwell in December of all 33 counts he faced: 25 felony counts of violating the federal Clean Water Act, six counts of mail fraud and two counts of making false statements.

Caldwell, 60, was accused of pumping septic waste from his collection trucks into the city sewer system on 25 different dates last year to avoid disposal fees of 10 to 25 cents per gallon. He also is accused of underreporting by hundreds of thousands of gallons the amount of septage he collected from customers. For each Clean Water Act violation, Caldwell could face up to three years in prison, fines of $5,000 to $50,000 per day of violation and supervised release of up to one year.

Commercial septic tank pumper truck waste is highly concentrated, and so if it enters the regional wastewater plant through the sewer rather than being disposed of legally, the waste can overpower the plants treatment processes. Some of the waste also could pass through the plant, untreated, and be discharged into the river, where it could create dead zones that kill fish, the Three Rivers regional sewage treatment plant supervisor testified in Caldwells trial.

Caldwells attorneys from Hester Law Group of Tacoma argued in court documents filed Friday for a sentence of zero to six months for the Clean Water Act violations and eight to 14 months for the fraud counts. An appropriate fine would be $30,000, wrote the attorneys, who based their calculations on complex sentencing guidelines.

In addition to Claypool, six other community members wrote letters to the judge last month: Steve Jabush, vice-president of PNE Corp.; Don Cianci of Cs Photography; Arleen Hubble, executive director of the Go 4th Committee and a former Daily News advertising department employee; artist Joe M. Fischer; Dan W. Hiebert of Klein Trust; and Steve Bilger, Territory director for Oregon-Southwest Washington Young Life.

The letters generally describe Caldwell as honest, charitable, generous, hardworking, reliable and family oriented.

Claypool said Ray Caldwell and his wife, Joanne, had allowed him and other friends use of their cabin at Sequim for long weekends, and that Caldwell recently had granted easements to an 80-acre property to make it a wetlands reserve through Ducks Unlimited and the state Department of Fish & Wildlife. Other examples Claypool offered of Caldwells generosity: All Out Sewer & Drain had sponsored many local youth sports teams, and Caldwell, while president of Cowlitz County CrimeStoppers, had donated his time and money to the organization whenever needed.

Bilger said Caldwell generously contributed to Lower Columbia Young Life, a Christian outreach organization that focuses on adult leaders building mentor relationships with teens. Caldwell also provided office and meeting space for Young Life for seven years, Bilger stated in his undated letter.

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Ray Caldwell backers urge judge to go easy on him