UCLA professor strikes deal in lab fire case, avoids prison

UCLA chemistry professor Patrick Harran struck a deal with prosecutors Friday that all but frees him from criminal liability in the 2008 laboratory fire that killed a staff research assistant.

Charged with four felony counts of willfully violating state occupational health and safety standards in the death of Sheharbano "Sheri" Sangji, Harran had faced up to 4 1/2 years in prison if convicted.

Instead, under a "deferred prosecution agreement" approved by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli, Harran admitted no wrongdoing, but will develop and teach an organic chemistry course for college-bound inner-city students for five summers, perform 800 hours of non-teaching community service in the UCLA Hospital system, and pay $10,000 to the Grossman Burn Center in lieu of restitution to Sangji's family.

The resolution caps a long-running legal battle that pitted Harran and UCLA against Sangji's family and the Los Angeles County district attorney's office. It did not sit well with Sangji's relatives, who had pushed for a trial and were "extremely disappointed" that prosecutors chose to settle.

"This settlement, like the previous one with UCLA, is barely a slap on the wrist for the responsible individual," the family said in a statement Friday.

Three felony counts against the University of California were dropped in July 2012 when the Board of Regents agreed to follow comprehensive safety measures and endow a $500,000 scholarship in Sangji's name.

Harran left the courtroom immediately after the hearing and did not comment after the judge approved the agreement. His attorney, Thomas O'Brien, said "our focus today should be on the Sangji family and their terrible loss" and that Harran was "dedicated to ensuring that such tragic accidents never occur again."

Sangji, 23, was not wearing a protective lab coat on Dec. 29, 2008, when a plastic syringe she was using to transfer t-butyl lithium from one sealed container to another came apart, spewing a chemical compound that ignites when exposed to air. She suffered extensive burns and died 18 days later.

Harran and UCLA contend that Sangji who had earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry five months before going to work in the professor's lab in October 2008 was a seasoned chemist who chose not to wear protective gear and had been trained in the experiment she was performing.

In what was thought to be the first criminal case arising from an academic lab accident, Harran, 44, was accused of failing to provide proper hazardous-chemical safety training, failing to require body protection for employees exposed to hazardous substances and failing to have an effective illness- and injury-prevention program.

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UCLA professor strikes deal in lab fire case, avoids prison