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Feds fine Colorado truck shop, send owner to prison, for illegal diesel modifications

Feds fine Colorado truck shop, send owner to prison, for illegal diesel modifications
Feds fine Colorado truck shop, send owner to prison, for illegal diesel modifications 00:24

A Colorado truck repair shop that disabled emissions control equipment on hundreds of heavy duty trucks' diesel engines was recently penalized and its owner sentenced to a year behind bars. 

In April 2022, federal prosecutors accused Elite Diesel Service Inc., formerly located in Windsor, of conspiring with a handful of other shops in the country to "tune" the on-board computer diagnostics of at least 344 commercial haulers, including semi tractors.

Some fleet owners sent their trucks directly to Windsor for the modifications to their electronic control modules (ECMs), according to case documents. Sometimes, the other out-of-state shops removed ECMs and shipped them to Elite for the tuning.

In many cases, Elite employees not only altered the ECMs themselves but also physically removed emissions control devices from the trucks' engines and exhaust systems.

"Elite's co-conspirators, companies that operated diesel truck garages or diesel truck fleets, had disabled the emissions control hardware on these trucks and hired Elite and Lake to manipulate the (on-board diagnostic systems) so that the OBDs would not detect the malfunctions," explained a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado.  

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Elite Diesel Service's former location in Windsor as seen in April 2022. CBS

Troy Lake Sr., the 64-year-old owner of Elite Diesel and a Wellington resident at the time, did the hands-on work himself on two Cummins diesel engines, according to federal prosecutors. 

For that, and for instructing his Elite employees to disable emissions systems, federal prosecutors charged Lake and his business with crimes.  

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CBS

Lake pleaded guilty in June to one count of Conspiracy to Violate the Clean Air Act (CAA). He was sentenced Dec. 5 to 12 months and one day in federal prison. He was given 15 days before he has to report to begin serving that time. Elite, meanwhile, was placed on a five-year probation and ordered to pay a $37,500 fine. A separate $12,500 payment was ordered as well. That money will go toward repairs of emissions control systems on vehicles "owned by low-income drivers who cannot afford to bring their vehicles into compliance," as stated in the press release. 

Similar penalties were handed out to the other shops. 

  • Endrizzi Diesel LLC of Bolivar, Missouri, was assessed a penalty of $220,000 including a fine and a community service payment to the Walnut Grove, MO School District to help replace old school buses with newer and cleaner school buses.
  • Perkins Diesel LLC of Strafford, Missouri, was penalized $95,500 and ordered to pay the same school district for the same purposes.
  • Pro Diesel Inc. of Des Moines, Iowa, must pay $155,000 including money to the Des Moines Area Community College that will fund development of curricula to train diesel mechanics on servicing emissions controls.
  • McDermid Sales & Service Inc. of Oconto Falls, Wisc., was ordered to pay $112,500, part of that going toward newer school buses for the Oconto Falls School District.
  • Hammes Repair Inc. of Seneca, Kansas, was fined $117,500. Part of that amount will go to the Kansas Department of Health & Environment for the purchase of electric groundskeeping equipment that will replace older gas-fired equipment.
  • Crossroads Repair Inc. of Jamestown, North Dakota, was assessed a penalty of $97,500. The Jamestown Rural Fire Department will receive part of the money to help replace an old firefighting truck with a newer and cleaner truck.
  • ATP Oilfield Services LLC of Fort Lupton was fined $107,500. Part of its fine also goes toward the same low-income emissions repairs program that Elite is paying into. 
  • Beatty Bodyworks Inc. of Oklahoma City was assessed a fine of $15,000. Prosecutors negotiated the amount based on that company's inability to pay a higher fine, according to case documents. Elite's fine was also negotiated in the same manner. Court documents show Elite received at least $362,000 from its illegal activities which took place between January 2017 and December 2020. 
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CBS

The other companies co-operated in the federal investigations, making Lake and Elite the last to entities to be sentenced in the case. 

CBS Colorado visited Elite's former location at 701 Automation Drive in Windsor shortly after federal prosecutors announced plea agreements with two of the out-of-state shops. The Elite facility was empty and stripped of any signage.

Online information from the Wyoming Secretary of State's Office shows the Windsor location is associated with an Elite Diesel Service shop located in Cheyenne. There is also an office in Laramie. 

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CBS

Elsewhere in the nation, the federal government has pursued at least five other prosecutions relating to violations of trucks' emissions controls over the last two years.   

The Clean Air Act was passed into law by the U.S. Congress in 1975. It was meant to regulate hazardous pollution from both mobile and stationary sources. Updates were made to the law in 1977 and 1990 with updated standards for air quality.

Federal prosecutors estimated the group's diesel alterations added at least 1,300 tons of excess nitrogen oxides, 30 tons of excess non-methane hydrocarbons, 600 tons of excess carbon monoxide, and 30 tons of excess particulate matter to the air where the altered vehicles drove. 

Diesel exhaust is a known carcinogen, according to the National Institute of Health and the World Health Organization. Research shows it causes lung cancer. 

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