E. Hampton fishermen expected to plead to misdemeanor

BY MARK HARRINGTON

AND CARL MACGOWAN

mark.harrington@newsday.com

carl.macgowan@newsday.com

Two East Hampton men from a legendary fishing clan who were charged with felonies for commercial fishing violations are expected to appear in court Wednesday morning to plead to a single misdemeanor count each, their lawyer said Tuesday.

Daniel and Paul Lester were arrested in January and charged with two felony and five misdemeanor counts each in connection with harvesting of scup and fluke out of season and without permits, respectively. Both had pleaded not guilty to the charges, for which they each faced more $45,000 in fines and a year in jail if convicted.

"We're confident that a vast majority of the charges, including the felonies, are being dismissed," said the men's attorney, Daniel Rodgers of Riverhead.

A spokesman for District Attorney Thomas Spota could not be reached comment.

Rodgers said the men decided to take the plea because they faced the loss of their fishing licenses if they lost on the felony charges. Rodgers had envisioned fighting the charges as a test case to assert fishermen's rights as outlined in colonial-era law.

The case drew strong interest and support in the tight-knit fishing community in and around East Hampton. Dozens of fishermen and their families have appeared in court to support the Lesters, whose arrest they saw as emblematic of overzealous regulators crippling a way of life. Fishermen even planned a protest in which 20 people would sell porgies in violation of state law; the protest was later canceled.

Daniel Lester, a former East Hampton harbor master, and Paul Lester are the son of Calvin Lester, one of Long Island's last haul-seine fishermen. Calvin Lester, who died in 2007, and the Lester family have been fishing the East End for generations, and were chronicled in Peter Matthiessen's book, "Men's Lives."

The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which brought the charges, has defended its enforcement of fishing rules, and arrest of the Lesters. "We're always looking to make sure people are abiding by the limits that are set," Dorothy Thumm, captain of the DEC's marine enforcement unit, explained earlier this year. "It's a way of protecting other fishermen."

Daniel Lester was charged in June 2009 with a violation for fishing for fluke without a commercial permit after he was seen catching the fish in Gardiners Bay off Montauk, the state Department of Environmental Conservation charged. He pleaded guilty and paid a $500 fine.

After reviewing the records of fish dealers with whom Lester did business, the DEC later charged him with two felonies: taking and selling more than $1,500 worth of fluke without a commercial permit in 2009, and taking more than $1,500 worth of porgy out of season in 2008.

Lester faces five misdemeanor charges of illegally catching and selling between $250 and $1,500 worth of fluke or scup in 2008 and 2009.

He will be charged with another felony, illegally selling summer flounder in 2007, when he is arraigned Feb. 24 in East Hampton Town Court.

The felony counts could have resulted in a maximum penalty of a $10,000 fine for each count and/or more than a year in prison, the DEC said.

The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor charges is $5,000 and/or one year in prison.