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4 ABALONE POACHERS GET FINES, JAIL
TERMS
Published on January 30, 1996
© 1996- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Bony
Saludes
Staff Writer
PAGE: A1
A Superior Court judge Monday began sentencing nine
convicted scuba divers for their roles in poaching 20 tons of
abalone from the Sonoma County coast, the biggest
illegal operation of its kind in California history.
As 35 indignant sports fishermen looked on during a
daylong hearing in Santa Rosa, Judge Raymond Giordano gave
four of the defendants county jail terms ranging from 60 days
to a year and ordered each of them to pay $10,000 to $12,000
into an abalone restoration fund. But he delayed
sentences for the operation kingpins.
The sports fishermen, who represented eight sports
organizations or businesses, said they were protesting ``weak
sentences'' for such a serious offense against the
environment.
``We don't think the court is giving a strong message
to the poachers,'' said Randy Foren, secretary of the Sonoma
County Abalone Network, which organized the protest.
``Poaching on the coast is on the increase.''
Giordano began the sentencing after hearing lengthy
testimony from Constantine Karpov of Fort Bragg, a state
marine biologist and one of the country's foremost
abalone experts. Karpov said the nine poachers damaged
the resource along a 5-mile stretch of the coast but didn't
destroy it.
Karpov, called by prosecutor Brooke Halsey Jr.,
estimated the poachers illegally plucked 10,600 abalone
from Sonoma County coastal rocks over 18 months. That's about
14 percent of the sports catch in a year from Central and
Northern California, he said.
Fish and game officials said abalone sells for
$40 to $100 a pound and estimated the abalone that was
illegally harvested in Sonoma County for more than a year in
1993 and 1994 was worth about $2.4 million.
The operation was cracked when Fish and Game officials
arrested Michael Kagley and he became a confidential
informant, working undercover for the state and county.
Defense lawyers sat Kagley was a main player and induced the
scuba divers into becoming poachers.
Authorities said the abalone was shipped from a
house in Santa Rosa to Van Howard ``Hojo'' Johnson, a
26-year-old San Diego fish buyer, who reportedly sold the
mollusk delicacies to the Asian markets.
Johnson was going to be sentenced Monday, but his
hearing was continued to next Tuesday because the probation
office had not completed a report on him.
Despite objections from the prosecution, Giordano
struck plea bargains with Johnson and Eddie and Debra Blay,
who used their Santa Rosa home as an abalone processing
and distribution center.
In exchange for their guilty pleas, Giordano said he
would give them local jail time instead of state prison for
felony conspiracy to violate fish and game laws.
Halsey wants the judge to send Johnson and the Blays to
prison, but before that can happen they will have to withdraw
their pleas, go to trial and be convicted.
Giordano got half way through Debra Blay's hearing
before recessing court until today. The probation office is
recommending prison for Debra Blay and has urged the judge to
let her withdraw her plea.
Giordano sentenced four defendants Monday -- Jerry Wade
Mitchell, Darren Frank Natman, Randall Lee Blay and Paul Scott
Saunders -- all of whom were placed on five years probation
and banned from Sonoma and Mendocino coastal waters. All but
Natman were ordered to pay $12,000 into the North Coast
Abalone Restoration Fund. Natman is to pay $10,000.
In addition, Mitchell got a year in jail, Randall Blay
120 days, Saunders 90 days and Natman 60 days. The sentences
were stayed until March 1 to give the defendants time to
arrange to get on the work furlough program, which allows them
to serve their time after work and on weekends.
``The sentencings are disappointing compared to the
severity of the case, but at least the judge is giving them
the maximum that was agreed upon,'' said Rocky Daniels,
president of Redwood Empire Divers.
Kagley has yet to be sentenced, but two other
defendants last year also were given probation and agreed to
pay a total of $30,000 into the abalone restoration
fund.
Keywords: FISHING YEAR END
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