BOSTON, Mass. — September 5, 2014 — The state's top health official will decide whether to accept the recommendation of attorneys to revoke the licenses of Joe's Lobster Mart, effectively forcing the 43-year-old business to close.
The decision is likely to come within days and was prompted by owner Joseph Vaudo's guilty plea in March that he received stolen oysters at his retail and wholesale fish market on the Cape Cod Canal in Sandwich. On Oct. 26, 2013, police had his market under surveillance during a transaction with Michael Bryant, who police suspected of stealing oysters from Dennis and Barnstable shellfish grants. Bryant has since pleaded guilty to a string of oyster thefts.
Vaudo, 63, paid a $6,250 fine for his criminal offenses, but is likely to pay a much stiffer penalty when the state Department of Public Health revokes his permits to operate Joe's Lobster Mart.
At a three-hour hearing Thursday before the state Division of Administrative Law Appeals, Vaudo personally took the stand to plead his case that public health was never threatened. Three other witnesses provided testimony about his business practices calling him a respected and trusted fish dealer.
Kenneth Bresler, a magistrate with the state law agency, has already ruled the Department of Public Health is within its rights to revoke Vaudo's license. Thursday's hearing was billed as a chance for Vaudo to prove to health officials why they shouldn't take that step.
Afterward, attorneys for DPH said they will recommend to Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett that she revoke the permits and issue a cease-and-desist order, which would force Joe's Lobster Mart to close immediately. In a discussion between attorneys after the formal hearing, Vaudo's attorney, John Kiernan, could be heard asking what would become of more than $200,000 in inventory that remains in the fish warehouse as of this week.
“Sell it off,” James Strong, an attorney for the DPH, responded.
If Bartlett revokes his license, Vaudo could appeal to Superior Court but would not be able to keep his business open as he has since DPH announced its intent to revoke his license in April. There's an outside chance Vaudo could sell fish from the retail part of the store, Madeline Piper, an attorney for the state, said. That appears to be a slim chance because it also requires a permit from the state.
Read the full story from the Cape Cod Times