ELR Citation: ELR 20113
No(s). 06-2431 (8th Cir. May 22, 2007)

The court upheld an individual's conviction for Clean Water Act (CWA) violations stemming from the discharge of untreated liquid industrial wastes directly into a public sewer system. Although a jury acquitted him of personally committing the acts of discharging the waste into the public sewer system, the government presented sufficient evidence to support the counts for which he was convicted—violating the CWA and/or aiding and abetting those violations. Any attempt to explain why he was convicted on eight counts but acquitted on one "would be based either on pure speculation, or would require inquiries into the jury's deliberations that courts generally will not undertake." Here, the evidence demonstrates that he was more than a passive observer of the illegal discharges.