|
PLEA BARGAIN IN ABALONE POACHING FINE,
JAIL TIME FOR ACCUSED MASTERMIND
Published on December 2, 1995
© 1995- The
Press Democrat
BYLINE: Bony
Saludes
Staff Writer
PAGE: B1
The man who state Fish and Game officials say masterminded
the biggest abalone poaching operation in the state's
history pleaded no contest to felony conspiracy charges in
Sonoma County Superior Court on Friday.
Van Howard ``Hojo'' Johnson, a 26-year-old San Diego
fish buyer, got scuba divers to pluck about 20 tons of
abalone from the Sonoma County coast and sold the
mollusk delicacies to lucrative markets in Asia and the East
Coast, state officials said.
Fish and game officials say abalone sells for $40 to
$100 a pound and estimated that the abalone that was
illegally harvested in Sonoma County for more than a year
between 1993 and 1994 was worth about $2.4 million.
Eleven other defendants named with Johnson in a
conspiracy indictment also have pleaded guilty or no contest,
eight of them on Thursday.
Johnson accepted a plea bargain reached between his
lawyer, Geoffrey Dunham, and Superior Court Judge Raymond
Giordano.
The agreement called for Johnson to plead no contest to
a felony conspiracy charge and several misdemeanor fish and
game violations in exchange for probation, a fine and some
local jail time, but no state prison.
Prosecutor Brooke Halsey Jr., who reached a plea
agreement with some of the other defendants, said he was
disappointed Giordano did not offer to send Johnson to prison.
Johnson can still go to prison for up to six years if he
violates probation.
Johnson also pleaded guilty to illegally taking
abalone for commercial purposes for which he can be
fined up to $40,000.
Giordano ordered the Probation Office to prepare a
pre-sentencing report on Johnson and set sentencing for Jan.
29.
State officials said Johnson began the venture by
renting a house near Cazadero where the divers sold their
sports catches to him for $14 a pound, and he later provided
them equipment for tank diving and avoiding detection.
The scuba divers took the abalone from various
parts of the Sonoma County coast, including the Longest Yard,
Red Barn, Cardiac Hill and Sawmill Point, he said.
The divers later delivered the abalone to the
Santa Rosa home of Eddie and Debra Blay for cleaning and
preparation before it was taken to the San Francisco Airport
and flown to San Diego.
Eddie Blay, 34, paid divers $15 a pound to harvest the
mollusks, then resold the abalone to Johnson for up to
$25 a pound, officials said.
The Blays also accepted no-prison offers by the judge
in pleading no contest to conspiracy charges on Thursday. They
will be sentenced Jan. 17.
Four of the defendants who pleaded no contest on
Thursday each agreed to pay $12,000 into an abalone
restoration fund as part of their punishment and a fifth
defendant agreed to put up $10,000. Two others earlier agreed
to pay a total of $30,000 into the fund.
Because of the pleas, a long and cumbersome trial that
was expected to cost the county $200,000 was called off.
Keywords: FISHING
Continue searching:
Visit the main
Press Democrat search page
Search the archive again:
|
