Filed at June 24, 2010 under by Keys
CITIZEN STAFF
http://keysnews.com/
Wildlife officers chased two suspected lobster poachers Saturday as they reportedly attempted to out-swim a state boat near Ohio Key, just east of Bahia Honda State Park.
One of the men swam to Sunshine Key Camping Resort in the hope of outrunning Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers, but was captured after a foot chase through the campground, agency spokesman Bobby Dube said.
Ivan Rodriguez, 46, and Nelson Amaro-Montesino, 27, both of Miami, were charged with taking lobster out of season, snorkeling with no dive flag, interfering with an officer and resisting arrest — all misdemeanors.
Officers found 31 lobsters in a dive bag and spearfishing equipment in the water after their arrest, Dube said. Of the 31 lobster, about a third were undersized and had been speared, he said.
The agency received a call around 7 p.m., reporting that two men were in the water just outside the Ohio Key Channel without a dive flag, Dube said. He did not know whether the call came from a boater or someone driving over the bridge. Two officers responded and watched the men from a distance before stopping them, Dube said.
“They tried to swim to shore and wouldn’t get in our boat,” Dube said.
As officers followed the men, Amaro-Montesino tired and eventually boarded the agency’s vessel, Dube said. Rodriguez made it to shore before officers corralled him in the campground, Dube said.
The Monroe County State Attorney’s Office is reviewing the case, and more charges could be pending, Dube said.
Back in the channel, officers found a milk jug with a spear gun tied to it and a bag containing lobster.
Both men were taken to jail in Marathon and county Judge Tegan Slaton set their bond at $74,000.
The lobster “mini season” runs July 28 and 29. Regular season begins on Aug. 6 and runs through March 31. It is illegal to spearfish for lobster any time, anywhere in Florida.
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Filed at June 15, 2010 under by Keys
By GARY PHILLIPS
KeysNews.com
Saturday, June 12, 201
Nearly nine months to the day after being accused of molesting a commercial lobster trap, two Key Largo men were convicted on third-degree felony charges.
Ruben Barbuscio, 62, and Daniel Peralta, 53, were led in handcuffs from a Plantation Key courtroom after Monroe County Circuit Court Judge Luis Garcia found them guilty on Thursday. The pair waived their right to a jury trial and opted to have their case heard by Garcia.
Their crime occurred on Sept. 11, when commercial fisherman Abilio Gil and his stepson, Yardiel Penton, videotaped Barbuscio and Peralta pulling a lobster trap belonging to commercial fisherman Dana Pettit onto Barbuscio’s boat between Rodriguez Key and Tavernier Creek.
In announcing his ruling, Garcia said the poor-quality video was of little value as evidence, but it did contain Gil’s spoken description of the defendants’ action. Gil was watching through binoculars while Penton operated the camcorder. Garcia said the eyewitness account was credible and weighed heavily in his decision.
Assistant State Attorney Colleen Dunne also provided photos of the trap, buoy and rope, and had the trap brought into the courtroom. She said the photos taken the day of the incident clearly show the rope and trap had been recently handled, as silt and marine growth on the items had been disturbed.
A sentencing hearing is set for June 29.
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Filed at June 12, 2010 under by Keys
BY ADAM LINHARDT Citizen Staff
alinhardt@keysnews.com
It took a jury four hours Friday to find Harry Bethel Jr. and his two mates guilty of pulling another fisherman’s lobster traps three years ago.
Bethel Jr., 48, and co-defendants Shamus Davis, 32, and Lawrence Pinder, 54, were found guilty of one count of trap molestation, a third-degree felony with a maximum punishment of five years in prison. Each is scheduled to be sentenced before circuit Judge David Audlin on June 28.
Audlin granted Assistant State Attorney Val Winter’s request that fishing licenses for each man be revoked pending sentencing. Each could have their licenses permanently revoked at that time, Winter said. None of the defendants was taken into custody, as Audlin did not find them to be a threat to the community, Winter said. Each initially was charged with two counts of trap molestation. Jurors found them guilty of pulling only one of the two traps the state argued they molested while fishing aboard Bethel Jr.’s crawfish vessel, the Kayla Renee II, near Sugarloaf Key in 2007.
“They found them guilty on the trap that [a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC)] pilot had under constant surveillance,” Winter said. Two FWC officers responded to the Kayla Renee II under the direction of FWC pilot Lt. John Murphy, according to court testimony. Much of the state’s case centered on Murphy’s testimony of what he saw while on patrol about 2,000 to 3,000 feet in the air.
Defense attorney Manny Garcia, who is representing Bethel, and Assistant Public Defender Christopher Bridger, assigned to the other two defendants, hammered away in their closing arguments Friday at what Murphy was able to see from that height. It was the second trial in the case, as prosecutors failed to convince a jury in January that the fishermen had molested any traps. Audlin declared a mistrial after jurors failed to reach a verdict in the first trial.
In an unrelated arson case, Bethel Jr. has not accepted a plea agreement offered by prosecutors. Winter declined to comment on the specifics of the offer until it has been legally accepted or rejected in court and made public. That charge carries a maximum of 35 years in prison and $5,000 in fines if Bethel is found guilty. Prosecutors allege he set fire to a thatched-roof tiki hut at the home of his cousin and business partner, with whom he was arguing, in September 2007.
Bethel is the son of former Key West City Commissioner Harry Bethel Sr. and current Key West Bight Board chairman.
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Filed at June 3, 2010 under by Keys
By KEVIN WADLOW
http://www.keysnet.com
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Fifteen lobster tails were seized as evidence Monday when state wildlife officers arrested a St. Augustine man spearfishing near Grassy Key. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officers charged Bruce L. Beall, 39, with 19 misdemeanor counts of conservation violations.
FWC officers checked Beall when they saw him spearfishing in Gulf of Mexico waters north of Grass Key, FWC spokesman Bobby Dube said. It’s illegal to spear lobster, and to separate tails from the lobster body on the water. All the tails were undersized and taken in a closed season, Dube said.
If the lobster had been egg-bearing, “he’d have had the whole set” of possible crawfish violations, Dube noted. The incident was the most serious conservation violation reported from the Memorial Day weekend in the Keys, the officer said.
Lobster season is closed from April 1 to the sport-diving days the last Wednesday and Thursday in July.
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