Rockfish Files: Md. poacher gets prison for $500K scheme
BALTIMORE -- Illegally taken rockfish -- 92 tons worth an estimated market value of half a million dollars -- is also worth eighteen months in prison, according to CBS Baltimore, which says that's the penalty for the biggest fish convicted in a multi-year poaching scheme.
The station reports that Michael Hayden, 43, was sentenced to a year-and-a-half behind bars, after the Tilghman Island fisherman was convicted in one of the largest rockfish crimes on Maryland's Eastern Shore, netting hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Hayden's partner in crime, 41-year-old Billy Lednum, just began serving a one year sentence.
According to The Baltimore Sun, the pair admitted to running an operation between 2007 and 2011 that involved taking rockfish, also called striped bass, on their boats Integrity and Kristin Marie beyond legal fishing limits, at illegal times, using illegal gear and covering everything up with falsified records.
They poached at least 185,925 pounds of rockfish that they sold to wholesale operations in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland for nearly half a million dollars, the paper reported.
"I'm going to pay my consequences for what I've done. I think the rest of the people ought to think about what they were doing and never got caught," Lednum told the newspaper.
CBS Baltimore reports Hayden received more time than Lednum after he attempted to intimidate grand jury witnesses, telling one man: "You rolled on me, [expletive], a man told me so. That's OK, I will take care of your [expletive]."
Friday, the judge told Hayden what he did was a fundamental breach of public trust with an enormous ripple effect.
"Mr. Hayden is being held justly accountable for his role at the head of a conspiracy to plunder protected striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay," said Assistant Attorney General Cruden. "The Justice Department, working closely with our state partners, will continue to protect these shared resources for the law abiding watermen of the Bay..."
"...I thank the citizens who came forward with tips to aid this extensive investigation," said Mark Belton, Secretary-designate of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.
In addition to the 18 months that Hayden will spend behind bars, he will also do six months of home detention.
Hayden and Lednum have also been ordered to pay nearly $500,000 in restitution.