In the Spring of 2002, John Peter Suarez, the former Director
of the New Jersey Commission of Gaming Enforcement and a former
Assistant U.S. Attorney, was nominated by President Bush to be
the Assistant Administrator for Enforcement & Compliance Assurance
for the EPA - the nation's top environmental enforcement position.
But PEER, using TRAC's experimental case-by-case civil and criminal
enforcement data, prepared a report describing Mr. Suarez's apparently
unexceptional record as a federal prosecutor. With TRAC data,
PEER was able to illustrate that Mr. Suarez had won exactly one
of his four jury trials, handled only one matter of "national
priority", and carried a smaller caseload and obtained shorter
sentences than the average New Jersey district U.S. Attorney.
Copies of PEER's report were sent to President Bush and all members
of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and ultimately
led several committee-members to oppose the still-pending confirmation
of John Peter Suarez. Click to see
PEER's Report.
