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MEMBER OF STATE'S ABALONE BOARD GETS 3
YEARS FOR POACHING
Published on June 21, 2002
© 2002- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: MICHAEL COIT
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
PAGE: A1
A member of a state advisory committee dedicated to saving
abalone was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday for
illegally taking more than a year's limit of the prized
mollusks.
Sonoma County Judge Elliot Daum denied a defense
request for probation and sentenced Joel
Roberts, a commercial abalone diver, to the maximum
possible sentence. Daum said Roberts violated a position of
trust when he took 130 abalone in December 2000, violating
state Fish and Game laws he had long opposed.
Roberts, named to the committee in 1994, was eligible for
prison because he was convicted of a felony conspiracy charge
that went beyond the Fish and Game misdemeanors he also was
convicted of committing.
A handful of abalone divers have been sent to prison
for conspiring to take large numbers of abalone on the North
Coast since Darrell Tatman was sentenced to a similar
three-year term in 1992 for illegally taking abalone in
Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties.
Roberts, 39, of Santa Cruz and John Funkey, 28, of
Capitola were arrested by state Fish and Game wardens who
received a tip and trailed the pair on the North Coast for
three days. It's unclear where the abalone were taken because
game wardens feared they would be discovered and periodically
quit tailing the suspects, arresting them later in San
Francisco.
Funkey was sentenced to three months in jail and agreed
to provide information in other cases. Deputy District
Attorney Brooke Halsey said Funkey didn't go in the water but
helped onshore.
Family and friends of Roberts cried as Daum read his
sentence after a two-hour court hearing. Roberts showed little
emotion.
Halsey said the maximum sentence was warranted because
Roberts wasn't a normal poacher.
He said Roberts was angered by the state's 1997 ban on
commercial abalone fishing, which had been allowed only south
of San Francisco. Roberts publicly opposed the ban during Fish
and Game Commission hearings.
Roberts used his position on the abalone advisory
committee, which the state established to save abalone from
overfishing, ``as a front to get large numbers of abalone,''
Halsey said.
Roberts used information given to the advisory
committee to find choice spots for abalone.
``And this defendant took tanks and dived deeper than
sport divers to take large numbers of abalone,'' Halsey said.
``That's serious damage to the California coast and the Sonoma
County coast.''
Roberts' contempt for the state ban was noted in the
sentencing report by the county Probation Department. In the
report, Roberts said he knew there were ample abalone in
California waters and that scientists advising the state Fish
and Game Commission were wrong.
In arguing for probation, his defense attorney said
Roberts had been a ``star'' abalone diver featured on TV and
in magazines and newspapers who was devastated by the
commercial abalone ban and was further hurt by heroin and
prescription drugs.
``He was in an exalted place ... and he certainly fell
from that place very hard. That was just a few years ago and
here he is sitting in jail ... and facing prison,'' said
Deputy Public Defender Bruce Kinnison.
He urged the judge to sentence Roberts to probation so
he could complete a residential drug treatment program. He
noted Roberts also must complete a jail sentence on a Santa
Cruz County drug conviction.
Given the chance to change, Roberts could be a great
abalone diver again, Kinnison said.
But Halsey countered that Roberts showed no remorse for
his crime and was ``willing to go to any length to get the
abalone.''
Halsey noted motel receipts found on Roberts following
his arrest showed he could have been poaching for 19 days,
potentially taking 100 or more abalone each time.
``His whole life has surrounded abalone and he won't
stop,'' he said.
Daum said Roberts' criminal actions were notable,
including diving in treacherous winter waters under the dark
of night, and warranted the maximum possible sentence.
``They were not only sophisticated, they were
consistent with someone who likes to take chances, reflective
of someone who wants to violate the law.'' Keywords:
FISHING CRIME SENTENCE DRUGS
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