Former Cortez fisherman shares his side of case that has reached U.S. Supreme Court
John Yates remembers the day his life as a commercial fisherman was forever changed. The 62-year-old sat inside his Cortez furnishing store Off the Hook on Wednesday and recalled that day in October 2007. As he shared his story, Yates’ wife Sandy — who has a background in law — and their daughter Jennifer Miller were more than 900 miles away in Washington, D.C. for his case in front of the United States Supreme Court. Read the rest here 11:16
Yates v. United States to question over-criminalization Make a comment here
If the John Yates case, that is currently before the Supreme Court, needs to be prosecuted to meet the letter of the law; then what about the Nation’s former Chief of Fisheries Law Enforcement, who ordered his staff to shred hundreds of documents & emails, which were being subpoenaed by the Inspector General of the Commerce Department.
How does this not fall under a violation of the records-keeping provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act? It would be impossible for the Justice Department to claim ignorance of this violation, without showing true ignorance, as even Congressional legislators were demanding some sort of investigation to resolve this issue.
According to one article, Justice Department attorney Roman Martinez said it would “a very strange thing if this court were to say that the obstruction of justice law is somehow applied differently when the offense is trivial.” (or perhaps “in-house”?)
Jim Kendall – NBSC
Some history of the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement should be noticed.
NOAA’s Chief of OLE during the time frame of Mr. Yates fishery violation was Chief Dale Jones. The fishing community of Gloucester awarded Chief Jones the dubious nick name, The “Shredder”.
During the time of John Yates’s conviction, NOAA was running a Kangaroo Court comprised of NOAA Special Agents working in conjunction with NOAA Litigators, and heard by USCG Administrative Law Judges to shake down fishermen for funding the Asset Forfeiture Fund.
Working peoples lives were destroyed through government corruption!
During a Congressional Field Hearing in the City of Gloucester, it was revealed that Commerce IG Todd Zinser was conducing an investigation of OLE, and the AFF “slush” fund, with estimates at the time held $8 Million. The investigation revealed the fund held $80 million!
During this investigation, it was revealed that the “Shredder” had returned to Silver Springs, and destroyed 80% of the documents in his office. Why did he not get prosecuted under this law, instead of Yates who allegedly had in his possession some cold dead fish?
This is documented, and easy to find doing a search on the computer.
Dennis Kucinich Confronts N.M.F.S. Dale Jones
People lost their businesses, homes, and in some cases, took their own lives because of these criminals in charge of the agency. Where is the Justice?
I posted this comment here.
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2014/11/06/yates-v-united-states-to-question-over-criminaliza