I always saw enforcement of environmental laws as a rather bureaucratic sort of policing, an affair undertaken in lab coats and grey suits, not in bulletproof vests and ammo belts. Not always.
KEY WEST, Fla. -- The owner of a Utah truck-wash company who told acquaintances he would rather ''go down in a blaze of glory'' than face federal charges of illegally disposing of hazardous chemicals pleaded guilty to seven felony counts Monday.
In a routine Environmental Protection Agency case that turned violent, law enforcement officers shot Larkin Baggett when they attempted to arrest him in Marathon, Fla., in March. The 54-year-old had been on the run from authorities since April 2008 and had been listed as a fugitive on the EPA's Web site.
When officers tried to arrest him, Baggett pointed a semi-automatic rifle with an extra clip of ammo duct-taped to it at one of the agents. He never got off a shot. Officers shot him in the face and buttocks and riddled his travel trailer with bullets. He was hospitalized in critical condition. In his trailer and truck, police found 3,000 rounds of ammunition to go with his eight weapons.
Now, instead of a possible three- to five-year sentence for violating the Clean Water Act and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in Utah, Baggett faces up to 90 additional years for stockpiling eight weapons and threatening the officers attempting to arrest him....
Baggett owned Chemical Consultants, a company that mixed 55-gallon drums of truck-wash acid and chemicals for removing lime and rust. When it was pumped out, some of the mixture remained in the drum, according to court records. Baggett instructed his employees to dump the remaining toxic chemicals onto pavement to evaporate or into a nearby sewer drain.
The rest.
A lot of people indulge in petty greed, though few are willing to die for the priveledge.
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