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PA MISSISSIPPI MAN SENTENCED IN PESTICIDE CASE
Release Date: 07/11/97
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JULY 11, 1997
MISSISSIPPI MAN SENTENCED IN PESTICIDE CASE
Paul F. Walls, Sr. of Moss Point, Miss., was sentenced on July 7, to six years and six months in prison in U.S. District Court in Biloxi, Miss., for his conviction on 45 counts of spraying the pesticide methyl parathion without a license and three counts of illegally distributing methyl parathion in violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. This sentence is the longest U.S. federal prison term ever for an environmental crime. Walls did not possess a license for the commercial application of pesticides in Pascagoula, Miss., and had been denied permission for application by a Mississippi state court. A co-defendant, Dock Eatman, Sr., also of Moss Point, received a sentence of five years and three months for his conviction on 21 counts of illegal pesticide application. Methyl parathion is approved only for outdoor agricultural use in uninhabited fields. Human exposure to methyl parathion can produce convulsions, coma and death. This case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and authorities from the State of Mississippi.
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