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EPA ATTORNEY PLEADS GUILTY TO CONTEMPT OF COURT

MILWAUKEE, Wis. -- Marc M. Radell, an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Regional Counsel in Philadelphia, pled guilty today to a misdemeanor charge of contempt of court for perjury that surfaced during federal civil cases in Wisconsin.

Radell, 41, who pled guilty before U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman was indicted in August 1999 along with another EPA official, Claudia Johnson, 36, by a federal grand jury on charges of obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice and perjury. Johnson died in March 2000, and the charges against her were dropped.

According to papers filed in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, in 1996, EPA granted three Wisconsin Indian tribes the authority under federal environmental law to determine the quality of surface water within their reservations. The state of Wisconsin filed civil lawsuits in federal district courts challenging the EPA's decisions.

The 1999 indictment charged that during the course of this litigation, Radell and his co-defendant created and backdated EPA documents, and then falsely stated in affidavits and in 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 $369,000 in attorney fees and costs.

Radell has been scheduled for sentencing on September 7, 2000 before Judge Adelman. He faces up to six months in prison and a fine of up to $5,000.

The case is being handled by senior trial attorney Nancy J. Newcomb and trial attorney Kimberly Kessler Ferzan of the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice. The case was investigated by the EPA office of Inspector General in Chicago.

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