Men Charged with Unlawful Catch Take Plea Deal

Two fishermen will do 120 hours of community service as part of a plea deal after they illegally possessed a protected species of giant black sea bass last year at the Balboa Pier.

As part of the deal, misdemeanor charges against Jonathan Paul Apothaker, 46, of Valley Village and John Francis Brady, 46, of Huntington Beach were reduced to infractions, Apothaker's attorney Christopher McCann said. The men will perform community service with the state Fish and Game Department or doing beach cleanup, he said.

Prosecutors objected to the deal, which was offered by County Commissioner Richard Pacheco. The fishermen were also ordered to pay $75 fees.

On Jan. 3, 2010, Apothaker was fishing off of the Balboa Pier. He hooked the bass, prosecutors said, and struggled with it until his line broke. Brady, fishing on a small boat nearby, offered to help in exchange for half of the fish, according to authorities. The men did not know each other at the time.

Prosecutors say Brady put hooks in the fish's mouth and used his boat to nudge it toward the shore. Apothaker, they say, swam to the boat, got the fish and swam it to the beach. Several beachgoers videotaped the incident.

McCann, however, said it was all a misunderstanding. Apothaker, he said, was actually trying to remove the hooks from the fish and brought it ashore because he was having trouble removing the hooks while in the water. Apothaker posed with the 62-inch fish, which weighed 140 to 200 pounds, at the request of beachgoers who were photographing and videotaping the incident, McCann said. Apothaker then returned the fish to the water, the defense attorney said.

"I don't think he did anything wrong. Under the circumstances, he did everything he could to rescue this fish," McCann said.

Apothaker accepted the deal, McCann said, because "he felt it would allow him the opportunity to continue contributing some community service hours to the cause of informing people of the plight of the sea bass while at the same time avoiding a waste of court resources," McCann said.

Authorities say the fish died and washed up on shore a week later. McCann said there is no proof that the fish that washed up was the one involved in the incident.

— City News Service