This panel will discuss 1) an overview of environmental criminal provisions; 2) explain what distinguishes these prosecutions from many other crimes, including: a lenient scienter requirement; how motive and environmental harm can present challenges to prosecutors and advantages to the defense; use of experts in addressing often hypertechnical proof issues; 3) the fine line between civil and criminal violations of environmental laws; 4) defense and sentencing strategies, including voir dire, sentencing guidelines, use of parallel proceedings to help defense; and 5) viewpoints of prosecutors, defense attorneys and criminal investigators on environmental crimes cases.
Moderator
Richard Glaze, Barnes & Thornburg LLP
Speakers
Mike Fisher, U.S. EPA Office of Criminal Enforcement Legal Division
Robert O. Posey, U.S. Department of Justice
Executive Assistant, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Alabama
Lisa Rushton, Womble Bond Dickinson (US) LLP
Emily C. Ward, Continuum Legal Group LLP