Jacob Resneck, KMXT – Kodiak
A Kodiak fisherman who threatened a federal fisheries observer has avoided jail time after a judge sentenced him to community service and ordered anger management therapy.
45-year-old Jeffrey Eugene Scott had been the skipper of the vessel Dusk owned by Kodiak businessman Al Burch. Burch said the incident began after Scott had dumped a load of pollock in Kodiak Harbor.
Court documents say Scott then chased the fisheries observer to the parking lot of Pacific Seafoods where he threatened her as she was trying to leave. That happened on Oct. 7, 2009. Burch said he had fired Scott shortly before the parking lot incident.
NOAA enforcement agents interviewed Scott later that day. He reportedly told them he could do whatever he wanted to the female observer if he saw her in town. He was criminally charged in federal court and pleaded guilty this month to two misdemeanor counts for threatening a fisheries observer.
The judge sentenced Scott to three years of probation and ordered him to serve 100 hours of community service as well as therapy. His former employer says the sentence seemed appropriate.
The judge also ordered that Scott’s future interactions with fisheries observers be limited.
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