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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF OHIO 

EASTERN DIVISION 

 

 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 

 2:15-mj-605 

 v. Magistrate Judge King 

 

SHANNON WAYNE HARROLD 

OPINION AND ORDER 

 Defendant Shannon Wayne Harrold is charged by way of complaint 

with the “knowing venting of a[n] ozone-depleting substance in 

violation of 24 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(1).” Complaint, ECF No. 1. 

Specifically, the affidavit supporting the Complaint alleges that 

defendant 

vented, released, or disposed of a hydrocholorofluorocarbon 

refrigerant into the environment while in the course of 

maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of an 

appliance, to wit, SHANNON WAYNE HARROLD cut the tubing of 

a[] commercial air conditioning unit causing the 

refrigerant hydrocholorogluorocarbon-22 in the unit to be 

vented into the atmosphere. 

Affidavit of Thomas J. Kohl, Jr., ECF No. 1, ¶ 4. At the close of the 

preliminary hearing held on October 9, 2015, defendant moved for 

dismissal of the matter, taking the position that “Mr. Harrold is not 

in the business of maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of 

appliances.” Defendant’s Memorandum re. “Disposal,” ECF No. 10, p. 2 

(“Defendant’s Memorandum”). The Court directed the parties to brief 

the issue, which the parties have now done. See id.; Memorandum 

Supporting Probable Cause, ECF 11. 

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I. 

 Andrew Kalas, a federal task force officer, testified that, on 

August 25, 2015, defendant was encountered entering a store in 

Whitehall, Ohio (“Roses”), wearing the uniform of his former employer, 

a heating and air conditioning repair service (“Eagle”). A 

surveillance video recorded defendant carrying a reciprocating saw and 

an extension cord. Defendant advised a Roses employee that he had 

been sent to service Roses’ air conditioning system, which was located 

on the building roof. Because the Roses’ air conditioning system had 

been serviced recently, the Roses employee called Eagle, which advised 

that no employee had been sent to service Roses’ air conditioning 

system on that day. The Roses employee then confronted defendant, who 

fled but left behind the extension cord that he had brought into 

Roses. Also found on the roof was an air conditioning unit (i.e., one 

of eight units on the roof) whose condenser, or freon coil, had been 

cut, which allowed the freon (“R-22”), a refrigerant, to escape from 

the closed system of the unit into the atmosphere. 

 The agent also testified that air conditioning units are 

frequently stolen in order to scrap the copper and other metals found 

in those units. Moreover, a check with local recycling centers 

revealed that, in August and September 2015, defendant had sold scrap 

metal from air conditioning units on numerous occasions. 

 The government also presented evidence that defendant has been 

indicted in state court for a series of similar incidents that 

allegedly occurred throughout the months of August and September 2015. 

Government Exhibit 1. 

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II. 

 The Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq. (“the Act”), 

establishes, inter alia, a program for “recycling and emissions 

reduction” of ozone-depleting substances. Specifically, the Act 

prohibits 

any person, in the course of maintaining, servicing, 

repairing, or disposing of an appliance, to knowingly vent 

or otherwise knowingly release or dispose of any class I or 

class II substances used as a refrigerant in such 

appliance. . . in a manner which permits such substance to 

enter the environment. 

42 U.S.C. §7671g(c)(1). This prohibition 

[a]pplies to any person servicing, maintaining, or 

repairing appliances. [and] to persons disposing of 

appliances, including small appliances and motor vehicle 

air conditioners. 

40 C.F.R. § 82.150(b). See also 40 C.F.R. § 82.154(a)(1)(“[N]o person 

maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of appliances may 

knowingly vent or otherwise release into the environment any 

refrigerant or substitute from such appliances . . . .”). Although the 

statute provides no definition of the term “disposing of,” the 

implementing regulations define the term “disposal” as follows: 

Disposal means the process leading to and including: 

(1)The discharge, deposit, dumping or placing of any 

discarded appliance into or on any land or water; 

(2)The disassembly of any appliance for discharge, deposit, 

dumping or placing of its discarded component parts into or 

on any land or water; or 

(3)The disassembly of any appliance for reuse of its 

component parts. 

40 C.F.R. § 82.152. Violation of the statute, or of the rules 

promulgated thereunder, constitutes a felony offense. 42 U.S.C. § 

7413(c)(1). 

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III. 

 Defendant does not contest that the freon in the Roses air 

conditioning unit is an ozone-depleting substance within the ambit of 

the Act, nor does he deny that cutting the condenser or freon coil in 

the Roses air conditioning unit released the refrigerant into the 

environment. Rather, defendant argues that his alleged actions on 

August 25, 2015, even if established, “do not fall within the ambit of 

42 U.S.C. § 7671g because Mr. Harrold is not in the business of 

maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of appliances.” 

Defendant’s Memorandum, p. 2. Noting that the statute does not define 

the phrase “disposing of,” defendant argues that the “normal meaning” 

of the terms refers to “the act of getting rid of something, or 

alternatively being available to be used by someone.” Defendant’s 

Memorandum, p. 3 (citing 

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/disposal; 

www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/disposal). As 

normally defined, defendant argues, the term “is not synonymous with 

‘theft,’” which describes defendant’s alleged actions. Id. at 4. 

 For its part, the government does not argue that defendant is in 

the business of “maintaining,” “servicing,” or “repairing” air 

conditioning units. Rather the government contends that, by his 

actions on August 25, 2015, defendant was “disposing of” the unit 

within the meaning of the statute and implementing regulations because 

defendant’s “destruction, theft, and sale of air conditioners as 

scrap metal” constitutes “disposal” within the meaning of 40 C.F.R. § 

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82.152(3) (“The disassembly of any appliance for reuse of its 

component parts”). Memorandum Supporting Probable Cause, p. 4. The 

common meaning of the term “disassembly,” the government argues, 

“includes the act or process of systematic destruction.” Id. at 5. See

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/disassembly. See also 

http://www.oed.com/view/ disassembly (“b. To take to pieces, to take 

apart.”). 

 This Court concludes that the Complaint sufficiently charges a 

violation of the Act, 42 U.S.C. §7413(c)(1), and that the evidence 

presented at the preliminary hearing establishes probable cause that 

defendant violated the Act. Specifically, by cutting the condenser and 

releasing freon into the environment, with the apparent intent to 

thereafter sell metal taken from the air conditioning unit, defendant 

disposed of an appliance, i.e., he engaged in the process leading to 

the “disassembly of an[] appliance for reuse of its component parts.” 

See 42 U.S.C. § 7671g(c)(1); 40 C.F.R. § 82.152(3). See also United 

States v. Morrissette, 579 F.App’x 916, 919 (11th Cir. 2014)(“By 

releasing a refrigerant into the environment without having the proper 

certification and without following the proper procedures, Morrissette 

violated the Clean Air Act, regardless of his underlying intent to 

steal copper.”). 

 

 s/ Norah McCann King 

 Norah McCann King 

 United States Magistrate Judge 

October 28, 2015 

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