The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in favor of a former Manatee County fisherman convicted of throwing undersized grouper off of his boat.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled John Yates should not have been prosecuted. Yates, a former fishing boat captain, was convicted of getting rid of fish that he had caught and illegally dumping them to avoid prosecution.
It all started in 2007 after a Florida Fish and Wildlife officer stopped Yates while out on the water.
The officer said he discovered 72 grouper on Yates' boat that appeared to be smaller than the 20 inches permitted by law. The officer told Yates the fish would be seized once he returned to shore.
However, once Yates met up with the officer on land, only 69 fish were found.
The officer said many seemed longer than those he originally inspected and accused him of throwing the smaller fish out and replacing them with larger ones.
“Basically he measured them wrong to begin with,” said Yates, who denies the charges. “A grouper has an underbite, so on a 20-inch grouper, the bottom lip actually protrudes a half inch longer than his top lip. So, he smashed the bottom lips of the fish down here to make the top of the fish touch.”
Yates said by doing this, it knocked a half inch off. He also said the once-frozen fish on the boat grew after de-thawing.
Despite this, Yates was arrested and convicted under a law passed in the wake of the Enron scandal, where documents were destroyed to hide wrongdoing.
The government said the fish were the documents in this case.
Yates and his wife Sandy denied the accusations and have been fighting it ever since.
“They offered me a deal to plead guilty to a misdemeanor or recommend no jail time, but I’m not going to do that,” said Yates. “I didn’t do anything. So, I went to trial with it.”
And he won. In a 5-4 decision, the justices threw out Yates' conviction.
It's a huge relief for the Yateses, who say it's also a victory for the commercial fishing industry.
“This is one for the commercial fishing industry,” Sandy Yates said. “They have not had a win in a while, so this is good for them.”
Yates has not been able to find work in the fishing industry since the ordeal started. He said he is considering a lawsuit to cover his lost wages.
“I’m hoping to recoup lost wages, if not more,” he said. “I’ve been through a lot. I’m 67 years old. To face 30 years, that’s like a life sentence. The money they’re making now on the price of fish is huge. Just on average of one trip a month, I’ve lost almost $800,000 in wages in the last seven to eight years. That’s a lot of money.”
Yates traded in his fishing pole for furniture. He now owns a small furniture repair and painting shop in Cortez.
He said ever since the case started, he has not been able to leave town.
Now that it’s over, he and his wife are hoping to take a vacation in the mountains soon.