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ABALONE POACHERS GET JAIL TIME,
FINES
Published on April 15, 1998
© 1998- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Mary
Callahan
Staff Writer
PAGE: A1
Three men arrested in a large and highly publicized North
Coast abalone ring last year were sentenced to county
jail Tuesday and ordered to pay $40,000 each to avoid state
prison time.
Their sentencing followed a rare, seven-day hearing in
which an operation once touted as the largest in West Coast
history proved somewhat more elusive, as initial reports that
1.25 tons of abalone had been seized in connection with
the case could not be shown to have come from Sonoma County or
the three defendants.
``That's not the facts of this case,'' county Superior
Court Judge Lawrence G. Antolini said, noting early assertions
``even inflamed me.''
Deputy District Attorney Brooke Halsey Jr., who
advocated imprisonment as a means of sending a message to
other would-be poachers, called the sentence a
``disappointing'' outcome to a hearing in which he argued for
three- and two-year prison terms.
``The benchmark should be prison,'' Halsey told
Antolini on Tuesday. ``If you come and rape our coast, it's
prison time you're looking at, not pulling out your wallet.''
Antolini apparently agreed with attorneys for the three
defendants, saying that as much as he agreed in punishment for
those who flaunt laws restricting collection of North Coast
abalone, the prosecutor had not proved his initial
allegations of long-lived, widespread illegal trade in the
imperiled shellfish.
Antolini noted the state prison system is bulging with
violent offenders and shouldn't be used as a repository for
those who've committed less-serious offenses. He expressed
bemusement that some in the public seem to think of county
jail as ``a country club.''
``It is not exactly a country club. That is not what I
would consider (just) a slap in the face,'' he said.
Defendants Loi Bao Diep, 30, Jason Diep, 32, both of
the Los Angeles area, and Chris Doan, 30, of Cupertino pleaded
guilty last winter to one felony count of conspiracy to
possess North Coast abalone for commercial purposes.
None has a prior criminal history.
In exchange for suspended prison sentences, each must
serve five years' probation plus time in the county jail -- 12
months for the Dieps and nine months for Doan -and pay $40,000
each before their probation is over.
Sonoma County Abalone Network president George
Lawry, one of several sports fisherman and coast residents to
rally around the prosecution in the case, said the lengthy
hearing and related publicity probably sent a strong message
about efforts to protect the coast.
``I'm pretty pleased with the sentence,'' Lawry said.
``I think the penalties were severe.''
The Dieps also were ordered to prepare a written
presentation for dissemination in the Vietnamese community
addressing Fish and Game laws, describing what they've learned
since their arrest and explaining why the diminishing
abalone population must be protected.
Doan may serve his jail time in Santa Clara County,
near his ailing mother, while the Dieps were advised by their
attorneys to quickly get jobs in Sonoma County before they
surrender to jail in two weeks so they can qualify for work
furloughs.
The three were arrested in May at the end of a yearlong
investigation in which they bought illegally harvested
abalone six times from an undercover Fish and Game
warden who the trio begged to supply them with as much of the
imperiled shellfish as he could get.
The case made headlines, in part because of about 1.25
tons of abalone seized from restaurants and processing
facilities to which the three defendants had ties.
But most of that seized later proved to have come from
unprotected water in Mexico and could not be linked to the
defendants.
Charging authorities with ``gross exaggeration,''
defense attorney Joe Stogner, Jason Diep's lawyer, said
outside court, ``Our guys were going to be the sacrificial
lambs for all the wrongs done on the coast.''
``I submit to you that it is disgraceful that we should
be looking at prison for a crime of this magnitude,'' Loi
Diep's attorney, Isadoor Bornstein, told Antolini.
Halsey, however, argued that more abalone
weren't connected to the three because they kept no records of
illegal buys, such as those from Fish and Game Warden Richard
Vincent, who sold a total 635 abalone to the trio over
six days last year using the name ``Jerry.''
``There is no way to tell how many pounds they took in
Sonoma County,'' Halsey said.
The records the threesome did have, however, showed an
ability to move 500 pounds of abalone a week -- some
valued at $20 or more a piece -- while taped conversations
with undercover wardens had them begging ``to get hundreds
more,'' Halsey said.
One defendant also bragged, Halsey said, of paying
$6,000, $7,500, even $45,000 for loads of abalone-
remarks defense attorneys claimed were ``puffed up'' to keep
``Jerry'' interested.
``I don't have a victim's family to walk in,'' Halsey
said, alluding to several tearful family members who testified
last week in support of the defendants. ``I don't have a
bleeding victim. I am the voice of the abalone right
here.''
At the same time, the defendants were under the
impression the worst they faced, if caught, would be
probation, Halsey said.
``What incenses me about this case, what is the biggest
shame about this case, and what scares me the most about this
case is the fact that these defendants told Vincent the only
thing that would happen is probation,'' he said. ``If that's
the risk, what kind of message is that sending out?''
PHOTO: 1 color, 2 b&w by Kent Porter/Press
Democrat
1: Jason Diep prays Tuesday during a court recess,
before being sentenced in abalone poaching case.
2: Loi Diep, left, and Chris Doan each were sentenced
to serve time in county jail and pay $40,000
fines.
Keywords: YEAR END FISHING CRIME RULING
SENTENCE
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