Camp Minden explosives: Change of plea hearing Tuesday
SHREVEPORT, La. (AP) — A change-of-plea hearing is scheduled for a former official of a company that abandoned tons of potentially explosive artillery propellant in Louisiana.
Lionel Koons was inventory control manager for Explo Systems when it went bankrupt in 2013, leaving 7,800 tons (7,100 metric tons) of M6 propellant on land leased from the Louisiana National Guard.
He has pleaded not guilty to 31 counts, but online court records show a change-of-plea hearing is scheduled Tuesday before Judge Elizabeth Foote in Shreveport.
One company co-owner pleaded guilty in December to reduced charges.
Trial is scheduled in June for the other owner and four co-defendants.
Prosecutors say they will show one co-defendant also ordered employees of a Kansas company to store explosives in unsafe conditions from 2000 into 2002.
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This story has been corrected to show that it was not the co-owner but a co-defendant who prosecutors say committed similar acts in the early 2000s.
