Cited by NRP Officer Jeffrey Sweitzer for possession of undersize oysters on Feb. 2, 1998, Shockley provided in-court training for the feckless Dorchester County States Attorney on how to best serve a Pirate Chieftain by entering into a plea bargain which gave the taxpayers no protection from a poacher. Shockley was found guilty on March 9, 1998, with no fine and no time.
Tag: NRP Officer R. Bowman
The investigation in this case started in February 2011 when the Maryland Department of Natural Resources found tens of thousands of pounds of striped bass snagged in illegal, anchored nets before the season officially reopened.
The conspirators were seen on the water in the vicinity of the illegal nets. The subsequent investigation unveiled a wider criminal enterprise to which Hayden and Lednum pleaded guilty on Aug. 1, 2014. Co-defendant Kent Conley Sadler, 31, also of Tilghman Island, previously pleaded guilty to his participation in the conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21, 2014. Hayden and Lednum face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
The defendants have agreed to pay restitution to the state of Maryland of between $498,293 and $929,625. The defendants have further agreed to forfeit the monetary equivalent of 80 percent of the value of the vessel primarily used during the conspiracy.
Poaching Violations for 13 bushels of oysters nets two watermen $527.00 fine each – Christopher Shannon Lewis, 42, of 14388 Cedar Lane, Greensboro, Md., and Henry Paul Saia, 18, of the same address in Greensboro, appeared in Queen Anne’s District Court on Jan. 7. Lewis was fined $527.50 in a plea deal with Queen Anne’s County States Attorney Lance Richardson. Richardson put seven other charges on the Stet Docket. Saia was fined the same amount. The approximate wholesale price that seafood dealers would have paid Lewis at the time he was cited was about $40 per bushel, which is about the same amount of the fine for each man. The plea deal did not involve any jail time.