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W. Va. Environmental Agency’s Legal Chief to Join EPA Region 3 as Criminal Enforcement Attorney

Release Date: 11/28/2006
Contact Information: Donna Heron, 215-814-5113

PHILADELPHIA - EPA Regional Counsel William C. Early announced today that Perry D. McDaniel, currently chief of legal services for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, will join his office December 11.

McDaniel, 47, will serve as a regional criminal enforcement attorney, and will be based in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charleston, W. Va. An EPA special agent has been working out of that office since the fall of 1998.

“Hiring Perry continues our placement of criminal attorneys in field locations,” said Early. “We can best serve EPA agents and Department of Justice prosecutors by being in the field.” Region 3 will now have two criminal attorneys in Philadelphia, one in Herndon, Va., also with EPA special agents, and one in Charleston.

McDaniel will focus on helping prosecute environmental criminal cases in the western part of Region 3, which covers Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. He will bring his environmental expertise to his new position, which involves counseling agents, providing legal advice to prosecutors and serving as a Special Assistant United States Attorney. Early lauded the willingness of Charles T. Miller, the U.S. Attorney in Charleston, to provide office space and support for an EPA attorney as an example of federal agencies working together.

McDaniel has been chief of legal services at WVDEP since May, 2001, and came to the agency from the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office. He spent 12 years at the law firm of Crandall, Pyles, Haviland & Turner, leaving as a partner in August 2000. He graduated from West Virginia University College of Law in 1988, and received his undergraduate degree in forestry from WVU in 1981. In 1996, McDaniel received the Kaufman award, which is presented annually to a member of the West Virginia State Bar for pro bono work.

McDaniel will report to Martin Harrell, a 1982 WVU College of Law graduate, who supervises the Region 3 criminal attorneys.
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