Environmental Crimes Blog

The USEPA’s Mission in Photographs

The United States Environmental Protection Agency invited the public to share its best photos showing the USEPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment. Hundreds responded, sending in nearly 750 photos. Entries depicted scenes from around the world, including the United States, Namibia, Malaysia and Antarctica.  An USEPA panel of judges chose 10 finalists in each of the three categories and then the public picked the winners. To encourage participation and provide maximum public access, the contest was hosted on the photo sharing site Flickr.com.

The USEPA recently announced the winners, whose photos will be featured in a special gallery on the USEPA Web site.  You can view the winning and finalist photos at: http://www.epa.gov/earthday/photocontest/winners.html

Enjoy!

WDJiii

False Statements Lead to Additional Charges

On April 22, 2008, a federal grand jury in San Francisco returned an indictment charging John Joseph Cota, a ship pilot licensed by the United States Coast Guard and the State of California, with making false statements in 2006 and 2007 to the Coast Guard concerning his medications and medical conditions.  The false statements arose from annual physical examinations that pilots are required to complete every

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is general described as a strict liability crime (in laymen’s terms you do not need to prove that you intended to do the thing prohibited) and provides: "Unless and except as permitted by regulations made as hereinafter provided in this subchapter, it shall be unlawful at any time, by any means or in any manner, to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill, attempt to take, capture, or kill, possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to barter, barter, offer to purchase, purchase,

Professional Golfer Charged for Killing Migratory Bird with Golf Shot

From the wire services, PGA tour golfer John Henry (“Tripp”) Isenhour III was charged today in Orlando with killing a protected migratory hawk with a golf shot. It occurred in December 2007 when Isenhour was filming a video segment for the television show "Shoot Like A Pro." According to prosecutors, a red-shouldered hawk

Crimes and Hawksbill Turtles

On February 19, 2008, Wang Hong, a Chinese national, was sentenced in Denver, Colorado, to 167 days in prison and three years of supervised release after.  On January 3, 2008, Wang had pleaded guilty to federal smuggling charges in connection with knowingly sending four shipments of Hawksbill sea turtle shell and violin bows decorated with Hawksbill sea turtle shell, valued at a total of over $5,000.00, to undercover agents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service working in Colorado during 2006 and

This is Just Incredible!!!!

I had the great honor of representing a young woman before the grand jury on a matter in which her father and the family dairy farm were being investigated for environmental criminal activity.  During these proceedings, the neighbor of the dairy farm under investigation filed suit against the family alleging that the discharge under criminal investigation caused the death of several of her horses.  Several weeks ago,

A Response, Of Sorts (thanks for commenting DaisyGirl)

Below is a comment that I received on one of my blog posts.  I am re-posting it here, uncut and uneditted (except for correcting a few typos), as a part of the blog to give it some of the space it wants to take and to correct a few misconceptions about my blog. 

First, I do not provide “due diligence on oversight” of any part of the Department of Justice.  It is a part of the federal government and I am but a mere taxpayer.  Second, I am a member of the Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee (and past chair) of the American Bar Association’s Section of Environment Energy and Resources (“EECC”); however, the EECC does not have any oversight function whatsoever over any part of the Department of Justice.  Finally, DaisyGirl refers to Michael Chalos’ law firm and an attorney named

Another Lacey Act Case

Contrary to, it seems, popular belief, the government prosecutes more than just Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships cases. 

On January 14, 2008, David S. Wong, a resident of Elk Grove Village, Ill., pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Los Angeles to violating the Lacey Act for purchasing and re-selling a specific species of fish in the catfish family that had been imported illegally.  An anti-dumping duty was placed on Pangasius hypophthalmus imports from Vietnam on January 31, 2003, after a petition was filed by the catfish

More APPS

On January 10, 2008, Mark Humphries, the former chief engineer of the M/V Tanabata, was sentenced to six months in prison for conspiracy to make illegal discharges of oily waste and lying to the Coast Guard. The M/V Tanabata is an American-flagged car-carrier ship based in Baltimore. In addition to six months imprisonment, Humphries was sentenced to pay a

Migratory Bird Treat Act Conviction

My apologies . . . work has goten in the way of blogging . . ..

On January 3, 2007, the United States Department of Justice announced that Lyle Ravenkamp of Hugo, Colorado, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, in connection with his misapplication of the chemical insecticide carbofuran to a 95-acre sunflower