EPA Dodges $40 million Wyoming Lawsuit







A federal judge in Wyoming agreed this week that the former owners of a chemical and environmental analysis company took too long to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over an armed raid that occurred in 2007. The judge tossed the $40 million lawsuit filed in March of last year by Roger and Sheryl Garling who accused the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division of conducting a malicious investigation and raid of their testing facility Energy Laboratories. The Garlings argued the raid was based on unfounded allegations made to the EPA by a former employee.

They took more than five years to sue the EPA but the government, in a filing made last November, argued the statute of limitations is two years. The EPA originally investigated Energy Laboratories for submitting falsified water quality records.

The Garlings alleged in their lawsuit they were falsely imprisoned over the raid. But the EPA said it was a false claim because only employees and non-employees at the lab were restrained for several hous, not the Garlings.