A former fisherman, awarded $400,000 in reparations from NOAA for a miscarriage of justice that cost him his boat and business but brought a fierce rebuttal from the trial judge, said Monday said that in the course of the rebuttal the judge might have libeled him.
But his lawyer is going further, saying that the entire group of Coast Guard administrative law judges who heard cases brought against fishermen and fishing industry businesses by the National Oceanic Administration was guilty of "collusion.''
Lafreniere said, based on documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, that all the Coast Guard administrative law judges were guilty of "collusion" with McKenna.
Lafreniere said a trove of redacted, exchanged internal emails between McKenna and other Coast Guard administrative law judges commenting on the claimed failings and falsehoods McKenna found in the Swartwood report also showed improper "collusion" and so, "no respondant that has appeared before Special Master Swartwood can receive a fair and impartial hearing" from any Coast Guard administrative law judge.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.
Read the emails from Judge Devine.
Read the emails from Judge Brudzinski.