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BIG ABALONE CASE COMES TO CLOSE LAST
DEFENDANT GETS PROBATION
Published on September 11, 1996
© 1996-
The Press Democrat
BYLINE: Bony
Saludes
Staff Writer
PAGE: B2
A two-year prosecution of the biggest abalone
poaching operation in the state's history came to a close in
Santa Rosa on Tuesday with the sentencing of the man who
helped dismantle the organization.
Superior Court Judge Raymond Giordano, going along with
a plea agreement, granted Michael Kagley, 37, three years
probation on a felony charge of conspiracy to violate state
fish and game laws pertaining to the harvesting of
abalone along the Sonoma County coast.
Kagley and 11 others were arrested in September 1994 and
accused of taking about 20 tons of abalone, valued at
more than $1 million, from a 5-mile stretch of the Sonoma
County coast over a year's time.
Most of the abalone was purchased from the group
of scuba divers by Van Howard ``Hojo`` Johnson, a 27-year-old
San Diego commercial fisherman, who in turn sold it to East
Coast and Asian markets, according to state game wardens.
Kagley, one of the masterminds of the operation, later
became an undercover informant and helped county and state
investigators gather evidence resulting in grand jury
indictments against himself and the others.
Kagley pleaded guilty early on and agreed to testify
for the prosecution at the trials of Johnson and another key
figure, August Angelo Vichi, a 38-year-old Santa Rosa scuba
diver, both of whom were convicted and sentenced to three
years in prison.
Prosecutor Brooke Halsey Jr. said he is happy the case
is over.
``It's been a long road,'' Halsey said. ``The system is
not designed to send poachers to prison and I hope that's
changing.''
It's a misdemeanor to break fish and game laws, but
Halsey has filed felony conspiracy charges against people
caught poaching abalone in concert with each other on
the Sonoma County coast.
Johnson, Vichi and Randy Blay, whose Santa Rosa home
was used to process the abalone for shipping, were
sentenced to state prison.
Except for Kagley, the other defendants got probation,
some local jail time and were ordered to make payments ranging
from $10,000 to $30,000 each into the North Coast
Abalone Restoration Fund.
In a related case, Halsey on Tuesday dismissed
misdemeanor charges of witness intimidation against Vichi, who
allegedly threatened a witness during his trial last month.
Keywords: OCEAN ENVIRONMENT ANIMAL VERDICT
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