A Marrero man pleaded guilty this week to stealing crab traps in Plaquemines Parish.
Jesse James Gainey, 45, pleaded guilty Tuesday (Dec. 16) in the 25th Judicial District Court to his second offense of theft of crab traps. Judge Michael Clement sentenced him to a $250 fine, plus court costs, and a suspended jail term of six months.
Clement also ordered Gainey to surrender his 2014 crab trap license and prohibited him from being on any commercial crab boat as a deckhand or captain and possessing a crab trap license until 2017. Gainey also was barred from selling crabs for the period of his license revocation.
State Department of Wildlife and Fisheries agents observed Gainey run a line of crab taps in Grandpa Bayou in Port Sulphur, and empty the contents into his vessel, according to Wildlife and Fisheries. Agents then found the traps in Gainey's boat untagged, tags cut and some with Gainey's commercial fisher's tag on top of another fisher's tag, according to Wildlife and Fisheries.
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