CHARLESTOWN –– The owners of a Charlestown gravel company entered an Alford plea Tuesday in Washington County Superior Court to charges that they disposed of solid waste at an unlicensed site.

An Alford plea means the company admitted no guilt but acknowledged the state probably had enough evidence to prove its case.

Under the plea deal, Judge Jeffrey A. Lanphear dismissed criminal charges against John F. Smith and his son Jonathan L. Smith, the company’s president and vice president. A charge that the company operated an unlicensed solid waste facility was also dismissed.

Lanphear imposed a five-year deferred sentence on a charge that the company disposed of refuse at an unlicensed facility. The company must also pay a $6,250 fine, payable to the state’s environmental response fund, and a $270 assessment fee.

A civil complaint in the same matter, pending before the state Department of Environmental Management’s Administrative Adjudication Division has been continued to Sept. 11. The Smiths and the DEM are negotiating a settlement.

Last year the DEM charged Shoreline Gravel Co., John F. Smith, 63, of 50 Pietila Rd., and Jonathan L. Smith, 28, of 60 Narrow Lane, with two felony charges each for allegedly operating a solid-waste facility without a license between Nov. 30 and Dec. 12, 2006, and disposing of solid waste at an unlicensed facility on Nov. 30, 2006.

The DEM received a complaint on Nov. 29, 2006, about construction demolition debris being dumped at 60A Narrow Lane, which according to town records belongs to Shoreline Gravel Co.

The complainant also said that the company’s dump trucks were being used to transport the debris, according to Kurt A. Schatz, who has since retired as chief of the DEM’s office of criminal investigation.

“The C&D [construction and demolition debris] reportedly was the result of five houses demolished by Shoreline Gravel Co. for a planned housing development located on Carolina Back Road,” according to a report.

The DEM executed a search warrant at 60A Narrow Lane on Dec. 12, 2006, and found 549 cubic yards of solid waste.

Schartz said Jonathan Smith stated the debris was being temporarily stored at the site “due to problems he and his father were having with Charlestown town officials regarding the disposal of the C&D debris.”

The rubble, Smith said, was to be taken to the state Central Landfill, in Johnston.

According to Schartz’s investigation, town Building Official John Matuza had asked the Smiths in early 2006 “to tear down 5 or 6 houses that were unoccupied and proved a potential danger at Carolina Farms.”

Charlestown Fire District Chief Donald Rathbone told Schartz that John Smith had approached him around February 2006 asking if the department would burn the buildings for training purposes.

“Chief Rathbone inspected the houses at Carolina Back Road and declined to burn them due to the amount of various wastes contained within the house,” Schartz said.

After demolishing the buildings, Smith asked the department to burn the piled debris, but the DEM said that for safety reasons it couldn’t be done.

marmenta@projo.com