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FOUR ADDITIONAL OHIO MEN SENTENCED IN PLATING CASE

Release Date: 06/20/97
Contact Information:

Tanya Meekins 202-260-1387

FOUR ADDITIONAL OHIO MEN SENTENCED IN PLATING CASE

Four employees of Future Finishes Inc., a plating company in Butler County,
Ohio, were sentenced in U.S. District Court for the Southern District in
Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 27, after pleading guilty to violating the Clean Water
Act for their actions which led to the illegal bypassing of the company’s
wastewater treatment system.  They also knowingly discharged waste into a
municipal sewer which contained toxic pollutants such as zinc up to 1400
times permitted levels and copper up to 100 times permitted levels.  

Robert D. Whitt, plant manager, was sentenced to one month in prison, five months
home confinement and was ordered to pay a $15,000 fine for unlawfully storing
electroplating sludge.  James H. Evans, maintenance and wastewater head,
 was sentenced to four months in prison, four months home confinement,
and was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine for illegally directing electroplating
wastewater into the city of Hamilton’s sewer system.  Robert D. Neff,
maintenance worker, was sentenced to three years probation including
four months home confinement and was fined $5,000 for participating
in illegal discharges to the sewer system.  Jeffrey L. Lovely, also a
maintenance worker, was sentenced to three years probation and fined $5,000,
for participating in illegal discharges.  Daniel Brown, owner of Future Finishes,
was previously sentenced to four concurrent terms of a year and a day in prison
on various federal charges.  The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal
Investigation Division, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Ohio E
PA and the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation with the
assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.