Alaska man convicted of spreading pesticide at homeless site

By DAN JOLING
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) – A businessman has been convicted of illegally spreading pesticide along a public right of way where homeless people in Alaska’s largest city regularly gathered.

State prosecutors say 67-year-old Ronald Alleva was convicted Tuesday of reckless endangerment, pollution, unauthorized pesticide distribution and misuse of a pesticide.

Alleva is president of Grubstake Auction Co., a business near an Anchorage homeless shelter and a soup kitchen.

Investigators determined that Alleva ordered employees on June 7 to spread Zappit 73, a registered pesticide and EPA-designated hazardous material, on ground within a block of the shelter and the soup kitchen.

Alleva told the Anchorage Daily News two days later that he had the chemical spread as a disinfectant and that he had done so as a public service to mitigate biological hazards.