EPA Employees Indicted on Felony Perjury, Obstruction of Justice Charges
Marc M. Radell, 40, an employee of the EPA Region III Office of Regional Counsel in Philadelphia, and Claudia Johnson, 36, an employee of the EPA Region V Water Division in Chicago, were each indicted on four felony counts arising from allegations of criminal conduct that surfaced during federal civil cases in Wisconsin.
In January 1996, EPA Region V granted the Oneida Nation Indian Tribe the authority under federal environmental law to determine the quality of surface waters within their reservations. The State of Wisconsin filed lawsuits in federal district court challenging the decision.
The indictments charge that during the course of the litigation, Radell, an attorney, and Johnson created and backdated EPA documents, and then falsely stated in affidavits and during depositions that the documents existed prior to the time that the EPA made its decisions regarding the three tribes. The lawsuits were subsequently dismissed and the EPA was ordered to pay Wisconsin and other parties approximately $369,000 in attorney's fees and costs. If convicted on all counts, Radell and Johnson face a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million.
The federal indictments against Radell and Johnson are based on evidence of criminal wrongdoing first reported by the National Wilderness Institute (NWI) and brought to prosecutors' attention in a complaint filed with the Criminal Division of the Justice Department by Landmark Legal Foundation, a national public interest law firm.
NWI Executive Director Rob Gordon noted that "EPA is driven by its own institutional interests, not by a concern for public health and safety. When the public interest is in the way of the agency's interests, EPA trashes science, laws, rules, and ethics."
Bill Omohundro, a spokesperson for EPA Region 5 in Chicago, released this statement: "We can confirm that two individuals have been indicted. We have been and will continue to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice. To our knowledge, no other EPA employees have been informed they are the targets of this investigation. We have no further comment."
Landmark President Mark R. Levin welcomed the indictments. "Planting false evidence is among the most serious crimes an attorney or a government official can commit. It undermines the system of justice and cannot be tolerated—not from EPA or any other agency." Levin added, "The Justice Department, whose lawyers were involved in this case, played a role in this scandal and we will continue to press for a full investigation of its conduct as well."
John Russell, a spokesperson for the Justice Department, said the case is "a pending matter, and therefore we have no comment." The Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice is handling the case. The EPA Office of Inspector General in Chicago conducted the investigation.