Greg Duckworth became a fisherman after college, and participated in NMFS observer programs before becoming the subject of enforcement actions. He describes his meeting with the Office of the Inspector General.
Terry Mulvey, Jerry Carvalho and I met with Office of Inspector General investigators for over five hours, from 1 p.m.- 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday.
Theinvestigators we met were Gregory Sebben and Jennifer Nobles. They werevery professional and caring individuals who seemed genuinelyinterested in what has happened. I felt we were dealing with honestpeople who cared. I never ever got that feeling when dealing with NMFSenforcement or OLE. Terry and I told our stories of being victims of excessive fines — issued for what we perceived to be malicious and selective prosecution.We enumerated what we believed to be wrong, and provided documentationto support our claims. I also provided the investigators with theaffidavit of Administrative Law Judge Jeffie Massey. The investigatorstasked us with a "homework assignment" of drafting a time line ofevents and weaving the documentation into it.
In my case, the NOAA General Counsel Officefor Enforcement and Litigation (GCEL) employee who negotiated in badfaith, issued a million dollar fine, withheld exculpatory evidence,violated rules of professional conduct,filed false legal motions, violated the constitution and lied to meoutright, was not allowed to be put on the stand at my hearing. NOAAGCEL employees are exempt from being questioned about their actions.Little wonder why things are so bad. I could add violation of dueprocess to my list of grievances. But that should be obvious toeveryone who has read the affidavit of Administrative Law Judge Massey.
Iattended the Gloucester vigil last night. It was a great feeling to beamong intelligent, caring people who understand the corruption and lackof fairness in the present federal fisheries enforcement system. Iusually have to explain to people how this dysfunctional systemoperates to destroy fishermen and their families, It was refreshing,for once, to not have to do that. The people who spoke understood howwrong the present enforcement scheme is.
I hope all the officials who have engaged in wrongdoing will be held accountable for their actions.
I would fully recommend that anyone with a “story of abuse” should talk to the Inspector General’s team.
Mr. Duckworth can be contacted at truetwistreap@yahoo.com
The Office of the Inspector General can be reached at NOAAFisheriesReview@oig.doc.gov or 202-482-4661.
Affidavit of former Judge Jeffie Massey
Certificate of Recognition given by the Commerce Department to Mr. Duckworth
Inspector General Zinser’s description of the investigation
SavingSeaFood – A fisherman talks about meeting with the Inspector General’s investigators