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POACHING SUSPECTS PLEAD NOT GUILTY
Published on November 1, 1994
© 1994- The
Press Democrat
PAGE: B2
COLUMN: Police and Courts
Four members of an alleged abalone poaching
operation that supposedly shipped hundreds of pounds of
abalone meat from Sonoma County to Southern California
pleaded not guilty Monday to felony conspiracy charges.
Municipal Court Judge Cerena Wong set a preliminary
hearing on Dec. 1 for Michael Kagley, 35, and Paul Scott
Saunders, 18, both of Santa Rosa; Randall Blay, 24, of
Redding; and Van Howard Johnson, 25, of San Diego, one of the
alleged ring leaders.
They and four others were charged in September with
conspiracy to violate state Fish and Game laws following a
nine-month investigation by fish and game wardens, the Sonoma
County sheriff's deputies and a county prosecutor.
Authorities claim the defendants, most of them scuba
divers, illegally plucked hundreds of abalone from the
Sonoma County coast and sold them to Johnson, owner of Ocean
Safari Seafood of San Diego, or to Asian food markets.
The other defendants -- Santa Rosans Eddie Blay, 34,
and his wife, Debra Blay, 34; Jerry Wade Mitchell, 30, and
Darren Frank Natman, 25 -- were to return to court today to
enter their pleas.
The lawyer for Johnson, meanwhile, filed a motion to
disqualify Deputy District Attorney Brooke Halsey Jr. as the
prosecutor in the case on grounds he participated in the
investigation and is a potential witness. A hearing is set
Nov. 10.
Four owners of a Santa Rosa restaurant, Kin and Sally
Lai and Yick and Xioa Pang, also appeared in court on charges
they conspired to purchase illegal abalone from
undercover agents.
A hearing was set for them Nov. 18 on a defense motion
challenging the sufficiency of the charges.
Keywords: FISHING
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