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POACHERS SENTENCED
Published on December 12, 1996
© 1996-
The Press Democrat
PAGE: B2
COLUMN: Police and Courts
A judge has meted out county jail sentences ranging from
four months to a year to four San Francisco residents for
being part of a group believed to have poached about 3,000
abalone from the Sonoma County coast.
Superior Court Judge Rex Sater, after an all-day
hearing on Tuesday, also ordered the defendants to pay $8,000
each to the North Coast Abalone Preservation Fund.
Deputy District Attorney Brooke Halsey Jr. said about
$250,000 has been paid into the fund by abalone
poachers convicted in Sonoma County in the past two years.
Sater sentenced Xi Huan Chen, 38, to a year; Jack Chen,
32, six months, and Linda Li Chen, 34, and Ru Feng Huang, 37,
to 120 days each. Sentences for Linda Chen and Huang were
suspended.
The four initially were charged with felony conspiracy
to violate state fish and game laws, but pleaded no contest to
misdemeanor conspiracy as a result of a plea bargain.
Game wardens said they were in a group of 70 people
caught poaching in the Fort Ross area along the Sonoma County
coast over a period of time last summer. All the others
escaped arrest.
Keywords: FISHING CRIME SENTENCE
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