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<figure id="attachment_10852" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10852" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//2016/03/11/pirate-poachers-of-the-chesapeake-all-the-governors-outlaw-watermen/st-marys-croaker-seized/" rel="attachment wp-att-10852"><img class="size-large wp-image-10852" src="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/03/St.-Marys-croaker-seized-1024x768.jpg" alt="GANGSTER OUTLAW WATERMEN at WORK: Just a portion of the seized catch of undersized croaker from the Lumpkins family boats by the NRP officers. " width="1024" height="768" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-10852" class="wp-caption-text">GANGSTER OUTLAW WATERMEN at WORK: Just a portion of the seized catch of undersized croaker from the Lumpkins family boats by the NRP officers in 2015.</figcaption></figure>
<h2>Pirate Poachers of the Chesapeake: Another Black Eye for Golden Eye Owner Robert Lumpkins</h2>
<figure id="attachment_11736" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11736" style="width: 376px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//2016/08/09/pirate-poachers-of-the-chesapeake-another-black-eye-for-golden-eye-owner-robert-lumpkins/robert-maurice-lumpkins-charged-in-new-2016-fraud-scheme-after-federal-rockfish-charges-in-2009/" rel="attachment wp-att-11736"><img class="size-full wp-image-11736" src="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Robert-Maurice-Lumpkins-charged-in-new-2016-fraud-scheme-after-federal-rockfish-charges-in-2009.png" alt="Robert Maurice Lumpkins charged in new 2016 fraud scheme after federal rockfish charges in 2009" width="376" height="376" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11736" class="wp-caption-text">Robert Maurice Lumpkins charged in new 2016 fraud scheme after federal rockfish charges in 2009</figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After being convicted in a federal rockfish sting resulting in his arrest in 2009, Robert Maurice Lumpkins might have decided to fish on the right side of the law.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">According to Maryland Natural Resources Police what smelled fishy about a license transfer between watermen at Piney Point was cause for an investigation.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Now the investigation is complete and Lumpkins along with a Leonardtown Notary Public have been charged with criminal charges.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">NRP reports that Lumpkins has been criminally charged with running a commercial fishing fraud scheme, the Maryland Natural Resources Police reported.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Robert Maurice Lumpkins, 62, of Piney Point, Md., owner of a seafood packing house, was charged on August 5, 2016 by NRP Officer Grice with perjury, false entry in a public record and theft between $10,000 and $100,000 for illegally obtaining the striped bass allocation of an ailing waterman and then allowing an employee to temporarily use the allocation. Court records state that the date of the alleged crime was Sept. 30, 2015.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The employee, Ryan Marshall Edwards, 28, of Piney Point, and Sharon Lea Hammett, 63, of Leonardtown, the notary used in the allocation transfer, were also charged in the scheme.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_10851" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10851" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//2016/03/11/pirate-poachers-of-the-chesapeake-all-the-governors-outlaw-watermen/st-marys-croaker-seized-2-1/" rel="attachment wp-att-10851"><img class="size-large wp-image-10851" src="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/03/St.-Marys-croaker-seized-2-1-1024x866.jpg" alt="Thousands of undersized croakers wound up dead after the Lumpkin's boats were nabbed for poaching in mouth of Patuxent River in 2015. " width="1024" height="866" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-10851" class="wp-caption-text">Thousands of undersized croakers wound up dead after the Lumpkin&#8217;s boats were nabbed for poaching iat the mouth of Patuxent River in 2015.</figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Lumpkins last fall permanently transferred to his own tidal fishing license the striped bass allocation of David O’Donnell McKenney, a waterman who was in a bicycle accident Sept. 7, 2016, that left him a quadriplegic until his death on Nov. 1, 2015.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_11737" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-11737" style="width: 150px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//2016/08/09/pirate-poachers-of-the-chesapeake-another-black-eye-for-golden-eye-owner-robert-lumpkins/david-mckenney/" rel="attachment wp-att-11737"><img class="size-full wp-image-11737" src="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/08/David-McKenney.jpg" alt="David McKenney" width="150" height="240" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-11737" class="wp-caption-text">David McKenney</figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Edwards applied for, and received, a temporary transfer of the allocation during that time. Edwards used that allocation to harvest striped bass while McKenney was hospitalized and for several months following his death.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Officers inspecting the permanent and temporary transfer documents noticed McKenney’s signature did not match signatures on older documents, including his will. When confronted with the fact that McKenney could not have signed the permanent transfer documents on Sept. 20 – after his accident – Lumpkins told officers the waterman had signed them earlier in the year when he was well.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The temporary transfer to Edwards for use of the allocation from Oct. 27, 2015</span>,<span style="font-size: 12pt;"> to Aug. 31 of this year was dated Oct. 27. Both transfer documents were notarized by Hammett.</span></p>
<blockquote>
<h2>Robert Maurice Lumpkins charged with stealing from a dying waterman</h2>
</blockquote>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">After McKenney’s death, his beneficiary obtained his tidal fish license, but not the striped bass allocation, a valuable part of the license now held by Lumpkins.</span></p>
<figure id="attachment_10850" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-10850" style="width: 720px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//2016/03/11/pirate-poachers-of-the-chesapeake-all-the-governors-outlaw-watermen/lance-lumpkins-with-a-boat-load-of-rockfish-photo-from-facebook/" rel="attachment wp-att-10850"><img class="size-full wp-image-10850" src="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Lance-Lumpkins-with-a-boat-load-of-rockfish-Photo-from-Facebook.jpg" alt="Lance Lumpkins with a boat load of rockfish Photo from Facebook" width="720" height="960" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-10850" class="wp-caption-text">Lance Lumpkins with a boat load of rockfish Photo from Facebook</figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Police say that when questioned by officers, Hammett first said that Lumpkins and McKenney each had come to her business to have the transfers notarized. Each man had signed a statement that the documents contained accurate and true statements. But Hammett later admitted that Lumpkins and Edwards brought the documents to her already signed. She told officers that she no longer kept a registry of transactions.</span></p>
<p><a href="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//2016/08/09/pirate-poachers-of-the-chesapeake-another-black-eye-for-golden-eye-owner-robert-lumpkins/image-description-18/" rel="attachment wp-att-11735"><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-11735" src="https://www.the-chesapeake.com//wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Golden-Eye-fish-felony-2.jpg" alt="image description" width="861" height="408" /></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Edwards was charged with perjury, false entry in a public record and theft between $10,000 and $100,000. Hammett was criminally charged with two counts of misuse of a public seal and was charged under common law with two counts of misconduct in office. A date has not been set in St. Mary’s County District Court.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 2011, Lumpkins pleaded guilty for his role in the largest striped bass poaching ring in the history of the Chesapeake Bay and was sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison. He also was ordered to pay a fine of $36,000 and make restitution of $165,000.</span></p>