Croton Retiree Convicted After His Trash Injures Village Worker

A village sanitation worker's exposure to a box of toxic chemicals left on the curb by a Croton-on-Hudson retired architect has resulted in public endangerment charges that may lead to a year in jail.

According to The Journal News, Paul Ingvoldstad, 69, will be sentenced March 13 on a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree endangering public health, safety or the environment.

Upon request on June 29, 2010, Croton Public Works department removed drafting printers left outside of Ingvoldstad’s home for pickup, but did not remove the six 1-gallon containers of ammonium hydroxide left with the printers.

Weeks later, a sanitation worker picked up the trash and threw the containers in the garbage compactor, bursting the ammonium hydroxide jugs and releasing powerful fumes.

As a result, one of the workers, John O'Brien, was knocked unconscious and hospitalized. O'Brien suffered painful eye problems and such extreme sensitivity to light that he had to wear sunglasses inside his home, prosecutors said.

Ingvoldstad was arrested in September 2010. He had been indicted on a felony count of the public-endangerment charge, which carries a maximum prison sentence of seven years, but not convicted of that charge.