WWW.USDOJ.GOV

DAVID M. UHLMANN TO SERVE AS ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES CHIEF

WASHINGTON -- David M. Uhlmann has accepted the position of Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section at the Justice Department, Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, announced today. Uhlmann replaces Steven P. Solow, who is a visiting professor at the University of Maryland School of Law.

Prior to his appointment, Uhlmann served 10 years in the Environmental Crimes Section as a trial attorney, senior trial attorney, and most recently as an Assistant Chief. He has prosecuted dozens of cases under federal environmental statutes throughout the United States.

In 1996, Uhlmann led the prosecution of meatpacker John Morrell & Company for conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act. Morrell paid a then-record fine of $3 million for its crimes, and four of the company's officers were convicted and sentenced to jail. In May of this year, an Idaho man was sentenced to 17 years in prison -- the longest-ever sentence for an environmental crime - in a case Uhlmann prosecuted with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Idaho.

"David is a veteran prosecutor with vision and energy," Schiffer said. "He has a track record as an effective manager, and he has played a key role in putting some of this country's most egregious polluters behind bars. I am delighted that David will lead the Environmental Crimes Section."

As Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section, Uhlmann will direct approximately 35 prosecutors who try cases arising from criminal violations of federal environmental laws. The section works closely with the 93 United States Attorneys' Offices to convict those people whose conduct warrants the most serious punishment allowed under federal hazardous waste laws, the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and related statutes.

Uhlmann has served on the Department's environmental crimes policy committee and the Department's Hyde Amendment working group since becoming an Assistant Chief in February 1998. He recently was elected to the Alumni Council at Swarthmore College, and he attended law school at Yale University. He clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Marvin H. Shoob in Atlanta.

Uhlmann is originally from Flint, Mich. His family has lived in the Washington area since 1965, and he currently lives in Silver Spring, Md., with his wife, Virginia Murphy, and three children.

###

00-340