Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: Robert Dorman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Maybe its time to hold Janet Reno's feet to the fire and get Peabody prosecuted for its environmental and other crimes. >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: Multiple recipients of list CORP-FOCUS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Support Your Local Corporate Crime Police >Date: Fri, 26 Nov 1999 00:43:43 -0500 (EST) > >Support Your Local Corporate Crime Police >By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > >Earlier this year, the Justice Department put out a fifteen-page memo >titled "Federal Prosecutions of Corporations." > >The purpose of the memo was to help federal prosecutors decide when to >prosecute -- and not prosecute -- corporations. > >It's a great little memo. Written by Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder, >the memo makes the point right up front that "vigorous enforcement of the >criminal laws against corporate wrongdoers, where appropriate, results in >great benefits for law enforcement and the public, particularly in the >area of white collar crime." > >According to the memo, "prosecutors should be aware of the important >public benefits that may flow from indicting a corporation in appropriate >cases." > >When indicted for criminal conduct that is pervasive throughout the >industry, corporations are likely to take remedial action. Thus, "an >indictment often provides a unique opportunity for deterrence on a massive >scale." In addition, an indictment may result in specific deterrence by >the culture of the indicted corporation and its employees. > >In corporate crime cases that carry with them a substantial risk of great >public harm -- like environmental crime cases -- there is a "substantial >federal interest in indicting the corporation." > >That's what we thought. The memo is well written, and a good guide for >prosecutors. The Justice Department should have put out a press release >announcing the memo to the world, instead of sitting on it until someone >on the inside leaked it out to us. > >Perhaps one reason Janet Reno's people didn't want it to go public is that >the Justice Department isn't walking the talk -- especially in the >environmental crimes arena. > >Prosecution of environmental crimes has sharply fallen during the Clinton >Administration, according to a compilation of court records released last >week by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). > >Comparing statistics from a three-year period in the Bush Administration >(1989-91) with a similar period in the Clinton Administration (1996-98), >the PEER review shows dramatic declines in criminal referrals, >prosecutions and convictions: > >* more than a one-quarter (27 percent) decrease in prosecutions; > >* a greater than one-third (38 percent) drop in convictions; and > >* a nearly 10 percent decline in the conviction rate. > >Even though the Justice Department is pursuing fewer cases, it is also >declining more cases (26 percent more) brought by referring agencies, such >as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or the Fish & Wildlife >Service. > >"The criminal environmental enforcement record of the previous incumbent >was clearly better by virtually every measure of prosecutorial effort," >commented PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, a former state prosecutor. >"Maybe George Bush really was the Environmental President." > >The statistics also reinforce the results of PEER employee surveys and >interviews with federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers about the >de-emphasis of environmental enforcement within their agencies. > >For example, PEER is defending Gregory Sasse, an Assistant United States >Attorney in Cleveland, who says he has suffered retaliation for pursuing >pollution prosecutions under the Clinton Administration. > >Sasse is probably one of the more aggressive prosecutors of environmental >crimes in the country. And because of it, it appears, he has been isolated >and discriminated against. > >In a complaint filed in 1996, Sasse says that his superiors within the >Department punished him for prosecuting polluters. > >In one case, reported on recently by the Boston Globe's David Armstrong, >Sasse was briefing a supervisor about a steel company that was illegally >releasing toxic pollutants into the air and sickening nearby residents. > >According to Sasse, the supervisor asked him -- "If the neighbors don't >like it, why don't they move?" > >When Sasse insisted that the pollution was making the neighbors sick, >Sasse says the supervisor told him, "people get sick all the time." > >"I was sick last month and nobody opened a criminal investigation," Sasse >reports the supervisor saying. > >Sometimes, line prosecutors rebel against their superiors. That has been >the case in New England recently, where for four years, line prosecutors >have been complaining about EPA New England enforcement chief John >DeVillars. > >In a May 13, 1998 letter to EPA Administrator Carol Browner, PEER alleged >that DeVillars "has engaged in a pattern of activity which has undermined >environmental enforcement, given a distinct impression of favoritism >within certain segments of the regulated community, and constrained >regional enforcement staff from properly carrying out their duties." > >Earlier this month, under pressure from PEER, DeVillars abruptly resigned >his position, saying that he was leaving the EPA to teach at the >Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to pursue an unspecified >"business venture." > >Unfortunately, in our society, dominated as it is by the corporate >criminal elite, line prosecutors like Sasse are left fighting for their >professional lives, while political operatives like DeVillars get plum >jobs at top flight universities. > >Not exactly what Eric Holder recommended in his memo. > > >Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime >Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based >Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The >Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common >Courage Press, 1999, http://www.corporatepredators.org) > >(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > >---------------------------------------- > >Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber >and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or >repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on >a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us >([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). > > >Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at >http://lists.essential.org/corp-focus. > >Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to >comment on the column, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > For more information on this on-going human rights crisis in the United States, visit my web page at http://www.theofficenet.com/~redorman/pagea~1.htm
