Court Assesses US$1.7 Million in Damages for EPA’s ‘Malicious Prosecution’

摘要

Proving that litigation and compliance efforts in the energypatch work both ways, the Washington Legal Foundation(WLF) issued a litigation update on October 3 noting thatthe U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisianahas ordered the United States to pay $1.7 million to WLF cli-ent Hubert P. Vidrine based on findings that it “maliciouslyprosecuted” Vidrine for alleged environmental crimes.According to the 142-page ruling, “the court held thatthe federal government never even had probable cause tobelieve that Vidrine committed a crime, and that the pros-ecution was pursued because of malice against Vidrine onthe part of Keith Phillips, the EPA agent who headed up thefederal case.