A U.S. District Court jury recently found Holmes Beach commercial fisherman John L. Yates guilty of two charges in connection with grouper fishing in the Gulf of Mexico.
Yates, 59, is to be sentenced Nov. 14, but he can appeal, which seems likely. The fisherman was out at sea last week and unavailable for comment, but his wife Sandy contested the prosecution’s case, as well as the information in a Justice Department news release circulated after the trial.
A federal jury in Fort Myers convicted Yates on Aug. 5 on one charge of disposing of evidence to prevent seizure and one charge of destroying evidence to impede or obstruct a federal investigation. The jury did not convict Yates on a third count, lying to a federal agent.
Yates, who was indicted in May 2010, faces a possible maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, according to the Justice Department.
Sandy Yates questioned the maximum sentence, saying her research showed five years was the maximum sentence for each count.
The government press release stated that the Cortez-based fisherman was captain of the Miss Katie and working in federal waters of the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010, when officers with the National Marine Fisheries Service, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, boarded the fishing boat.
Sandy Yates said her husband’s boat was actually boarded by a fish and wildlife agent four years ago, not 2010, and that his indictment last spring came as a surprise.
The government agent who boarded the Miss Katie found 72 undersized red grouper and ordered Yates to return to Cortez, where NMFS agents planned to seize the fish, according to the news release.
Instead of returning, Yates ordered his crew to throw the fish overboard, the government argued in court.
Sandy Yates questioned the motive and testimony, as well as the timeline, in the case against her husband.
She said he was carrying about 1,700 pounds of fish the night the agent boarded the Miss Katie. She said the agent was on board for four hours measuring the fish and deemed 72 were short of the 20 inches required at that time. The current minimum size is 18 inches.
Sandy Yates said her husband returned to Cortez with the fish, which were put on ice until they could be re-measured by federal officials.
She said her husband complained about the method used to measure the fish — 69 of which were deemed undersized and then sold to Karen Bell.
“He did not throw the fish overboard,” she said.
At the time, according to Sandy Yates, her husband received a citation, and though they had complaints about the agents’ handling of the situation they thought the investigation was closed.
“Three years later they came — officers at my door,” she said. “There had been nothing for three years.”
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jeffrey F. Michelland and Tama Koss Caldarone prosecuted Yates.
Agents with NMFS, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were involved in the investigation.
“Protecting our environment and natural resources should be of prime concern to all Americans,” said U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill. “Our office will continue to make the enforcement of environmental laws a priority.”
NOAA special agent Tracy Dunn, in a news release, said the agency “takes acts of destroying evidence to impede an investigation very seriously and will take appropriate measures to bring violators before the criminal courts.”
But Sandy Yates said the government was fostering a “Gestapo atmosphere.”
NOAA, she said, “is trying to turn fishermen into criminals.”
Of her husband, she said, “They are making him a scapegoat. They are twisting the law.”
In addition to the above, the FWC told him to bring them back when he was done fishing, which only lasted 2 days, because they burnt his ice up re-icing the same fish. They were in a 44 boat (his 40 foot), with twin somethings on the back. His boat goes 5 miles an hour. It’s not like he out ran them and hid. FWC is bay and in let by nature. This was the first grouper boat FWC had unloaded. That maybe why he was not familiar with the proper way to measure a grouper per the federal law 50 CFR 622.
Another example of an ever increasing government abusing its role at the expense of the honest citizen.
They missed a few facts. Like they took 69 of the alleged 72 fish. They also found him not guilty of lying to an officer when he told them they were the same fish they left on his boat. They also let him go back fishing and told him to bring them back, which he did. They did not take into account that the fish were packed in ice (shrinkage) and the average measurement was 1/2 to 1/4 short. AND Judge Steele ruled that the federal law of measuring TL was correct the mouth and tail MAY be pinched (not must) to obtain the GREATEST length by all. NOT In accordance with FWC (see their website). So lets get the facts straight.