RiNo neighbors are raising a stink about factory smells in their ’hood

"The data I was finding on wind wasn't conclusive enough to rule out that the wind was either upwind or downwind," Siller explained. "It didn't matter, because there were moments where there was no wind.... Wind wasn't a factor in where the odors were determined."

Ensminger, the neighbor who made the final complaint on March 19, took the stand next. A photographer who lives and works at Silver Square, he described the smell that day as "putrid." "It's this horrible thing that sticks in your nose," he added. "It's not like a garbage smell; it's not like the Purina plant. It's this burnt smell. I can't describe it, but it's unique, and it never varies."

Eric Magnussen

Kasel Associates Industries set up shop in RiNo in 1989.

Eric Magnussen

Pattern Shop Studio, which hosts First Friday events.

Details

See also:
- "Smells like dead animals" and other complaints made about a pet treat factory in RiNo
- The nose knows: To be a city odor inspector, you have to have the right sense of smell

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• Sharon Brown
• Ray Kasel
• Stephanie Syner
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At the end of his testimony, Ensminger asked the hearing officer if he could add one more thing. "I just want to say that when I was looking at Mr. Kasel, he mouthed 'Fuck you' to me," Ensminger said. "I just wanted to make sure that that's in the record."

Kasel denied it, but the hearing officer warned him anyway. "Although this is an administrative hearing, I guarantee you I can get sheriffs up here and you'll have an afternoon where you don't want to be, okay?" the officer said.

Brown and vonSwearingen also testified. Brown admitted that she'd met in February with Linkhart, who told her about the five-complaints clause, and that she'd sent an e-mail to her neighbors on March 19, encouraging them to complain about Kasel.

"Ms. Brown, you personally dislike Mr. Kasel, correct?" O'Toole asked.

Brown's answer was short. "No," she said.

The man Brown swore she didn't hate took the stand next.

Kasel testified that he was indeed cooking pet treats on March 19. But not pig ears. "We can't get any pig ears," Kasel said. "We haven't been able to get pig ears or cook pig ears for a long period of time.... They're human-consumable, and they're very, very expensive."

Instead, the company's main product for the past six months had been chicken jerky.

"Are the chicken breasts that are used somehow spoiled or odorous?" O'Toole asked.

"It's 100 percent human-consumable, fresh, boneless, skinless chicken breast," Kasel answered. "It's human-grade — comes right from the same plants you get your chicken that's at Kroger, King Soopers, Safeway. Same chicken."

Kasel explained the cooking process. First the frozen chicken is sliced into strips. Then it's put into ovens, where it's baked at increasingly hotter temperatures for twelve hours. On March 19, his records indicate that the first oven was turned on at 10:32 a.m. But Kasel pointed out that the first two complaints came in at 9:40 and 9:53 a.m. — before he even started baking.

"When the product comes out of the ovens," O'Toole asked, "does it generate a putrid smell?"

No, Kasel answered. "If people open the bag [of pet treats] and it stunk the way it's been described here, do you think we would sell?" he said.

The hearing officer listened to the testimony and recommended upholding the violation. The facts were plain, he wrote: Five people filed complaints within a twelve-hour period identifying Kasel's factory as the source of a "terrible, awful, disgusting" smell. While Kasel argued that the complaints were bogus and that the city had "predetermined to cite him," he'd failed to prove it.

Kasel continued to fight. His lawyer appealed the hearing officer's recommendation to the Board of Environmental Health, which scheduled a review of the case for September 13. But Kasel didn't show up, and the board sided with the hearing officer. Kasel, who by then had likely spent much more money on attorneys' fees, would be stuck paying the $500 fine.

But he wasn't about to let the city have the last word. Kasel hired a different lawyer, Dick Campbell, to file a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on September 27 against Montero, Syner, Linkhart, Lasswell, Siller, Brown, vonSwearingen, Ensminger and the entire city of Denver. He's seeking "compensatory, consequential, incidental and punitive damages" plus attorneys' fees.

Campbell declined to comment for this story, saying, "I'm not going to be any help to you."

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Three neighbors were unlucky enough to get sued, but they're far from the only ones who complained. An open-records request turned up fourteen complaints in 2010, 47 in 2011 and 33 so far in 2012. Several complainants did not want to talk on the record, saying they were afraid of making Kasel mad. If he sued other people for calling 311, they figured, he could sue them, too.

But Misha Morrow wasn't shy. A tattooed project manager, Morrow rents a townhouse at 34th and Larimer, about a block east of Kasel Associates Industries. The place has a rooftop deck with a bar and a great view that he doesn't use as much as he'd like to because of what he calls "the funk."

"On a good day, it smells like a grease dumpster," says Morrow. "On a bad day, I'm not sure what causes it, but it straight-up smells like a dead body or an animal that's rotting."

Morrow says he's stopped into Kasel's offices to try to talk to him but has never gotten past the receptionist. He's called 311 to complain, fliered the neighborhood three times and e-mailed city council members. He says he's never heard back from anyone.