SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The owner of a Kirbyville, Mo., towing company, and the owner of a Springfield, Mo., business pleaded guilty in federal court to their roles in a conspiracy to illegally disrupting the company’s emissions controls. diesel towing vehicles.
Dennis Cleveland, 73, of Kirbyville, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty before U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge David P. Rush on Thursday, March 9, to a federal information charging him with one count of conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and one count of tampering with a Clean Air Act monitoring device.
Robert Dyche, 67, of Springfield, waived his right to a grand jury and pleaded guilty Monday, March 13, to a federal indictment charging him with one count of conspiracy to violate Clean Air Act.
Cleveland is the owner of Affordable Towing, a roadside, recovery, towing, and mobile repair provider for commercial and private vehicles and vehicles throughout southwest Missouri. Affordable Towing uses heavy duty, commercial diesel trucks to tow and tow vehicles to repair facilities.
By pleading guilty, Cleveland admitted that, since 2011, he had directed his employees to physically disable the emission control components of several heavy-duty diesel tow trucks.
Cleveland is in cahoots with Dyche, the owner and operator of Full Flash Tuning, which specializes in illegally tampering with the on-board diagnostic systems of these vehicles. Cleveland causes Affordable Towing trucks to be broken down to save money by avoiding maintenance costs for emission control systems and by spending less money on fuel.
This tampering is often called “tuning” or “flashing” an on-board diagnostic system. One purpose of “tuning” is to allow vehicles to continue operating as if they were normal while the emission control system is disabled, rather than forcing the vehicle’s engine into a state known as ” limp mode,” which further limits the car’s top speed. , encouraging the driver or owner to repair the malfunction. The use of “tuning” thus serves to reduce the high costs associated with the maintenance or repair of components in the emission control systems of heavy duty diesel trucks.
As a result of “tuning,” tampered vehicles emit more harmful pollutants such as nitrogen oxides (Nox), carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), and particulate matter (PM) in the air, which presents a hazard. on the environment and public health.
Cleveland, through Affordable Towing, contracted with Dyche on several occasions to “tune” or “flash” the emission control systems of Affordable Towing vehicles, thereby causing many of the fleet vehicles to be modified. in the way that vehicles emit pollutants into the air that exceed legally permissible amounts under the Clean Air Act. Each diesel truck will continue to operate normally, as if the vehicle were operating within existing Clean Air Act restrictions, rather than going into limp mode.
In addition to personally tuning Affordable Towing vehicles, Dyche, on several occasions, would take the vehicles to an unknown entity in Rogersville, Mo., to “tune” the vehicles, where he paid for by Affordable Towing.
Under federal laws, Cleveland is subject to a sentence of up to seven years in federal prison without parole. The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the defendant’s sentencing will be determined by the court based on the advisory sentencing guidelines and other statutory factors. The sentencing hearing will be scheduled after the completion of the presence investigation by the United States Probation Office.
These cases were prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Patrick Carney. The Environmental Protection Agency is investigating them.
