All five Makah whalers enter not-guilty pleas
Wayne Johnson waves his hand at reporters as he and his mother, Sadie Johnson, exit the federal courthouse in Tacoma. He and four others were arraigned Friday on misdemeanor charges for killing a gray whale in September. -- Photo by Chris Tucker/Peninsula Daily News
By Jim Casey, Peninsula Daily News
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All pleaded not guilty Friday at their arraignment in U.S. District Court in Tacoma.
A trial is scheduled for Nov. 27.
Assistant U.S. District Attorney James Osterle asked that only Theron Parker of the five be detained because of an outstanding warrant in Port Angeles for driving with his license suspended as of Sept. 8.
Judge J. Kelley Arnold denied Osterle's request.
Arnold informed the five - Frankie Gonzales, Wayne Johnson, Andrew Noel, Parker and William Secor Sr. - of the three misdemeanor charges against each of them:
Each count carries a maximum fine of $100,000, a one-year prison term and a year of parole.
"Of course I'm not guilty," Johnson, the group's leader, told news reporters before the hearing.
"I have a treaty right."
The men also face separate prosecution in Makah tribal court, where they could be sentenced up to a year in jail; pay up to a $5,000 fine; and have their treaty rights to fish suspended for up to three years.
Supporters pack courtroom
Arnold's courtroom was packed to standing room only with about four-dozen people who supported the defendants.
Four of the five men were represented by court-appointed attorneys from Seattle and Tacoma.
Johnson was represented by a federal public defender.
Neither the men nor their lawyers offered comment on the charges, although Johnson - the most outspoken of the five - told the Peninsula Daily News, "I ain't afraid of nobody," before the arraignment began.
Arnold ordered the defendants not to communicate with any of the government's witnesses before the trial.
Osterle said he would divulge his list of witnesses to defense attorneys on Monday.
Pretrial motions in the case will be heard on Nov. 7, and briefs must be filed by Nov. 20, Arnold said.
Protesters picket outside
Outside the courthouse before the arraignment, several Makah and members of other tribes waved signs to drivers passing by, some of whom waved back and honked their horns.
"I'm in support of the Makah whaling," said Paul Haite of Tacoma, who formerly lived in Neah Bay.
Haite said his health declined after he left the Makah reservation and he stopped eating the native diet of seafood and game.
"I remember when I was a kid living off clams, bass, deer and elk," Haite said.
"When I moved to the city, that's when my health problems started."
Meanwhile, whale advocate Chuck Owens of Joyce repeated his call for an FBI investigation of the Sept. 8 incident.
"We believe the conspiracy can possibly run deeper than just these five," he said Saturday.
"We still believe the Federal Bureau of Investigation needs to do an independent investigation because of the National Marine Fisheries Services' well-documented and long history of conflict of interest."
'Broken promises'
NMFS investigated the Sept. 8 kill - which the Makah Tribal Council said also violated Makah tribal law - and the agency also is weighing the tribe's request to resume whaling legally under an exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Outside the Tacoma courthouse Friday, Dottie Chamlin, who on Thursday was one of two Makah woman who had demonstrated outside U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks's office in Port Angeles, protested again.
She said the federal government had created "a bundle of broken promises" it had made in the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, in which the Makah specifically reserved the right to hunt whales and other marine mammals.
She cited Article 6 of the U.S. Constitution that says treaties are the law of the land.
Gail Adams, also of Neah Bay, echoed the allegation.
"How is it that this judge can bring it into his court?" she asked.
"To me, the treaty is the purchase price for the territory that makes up the United States."
Tribe receives threats
Chamlin said the tribe has received life-threatening e-mails from people opposed to whaling.
"It is frightening, but we can't be frightened every time something like this happens," she said.
The Makah had hunted whale for centuries until it voluntarily stopped in the 1920s after commercial whalers had nearly exterminated gray whales in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
The Pacific gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species Act in 1994, and in 1997 the tribe was granted a quota of 20 whales - five a year.
In 1999, they held an authorized hunt, killing a 70-ton female whale amid sometimes violent anti-whaling protests.
Its huge skeleton is displayed inside the Makah Culture and Research Center in Neah Bay.
The Makah planned another hunt in 2002.
However, anti-whaling activists went to court to prevent it.
Whale advocates prevail
They eventually prevailed when a federal appeals court ruled in 2004 that the Fisheries Service could sanction whale hunting only after conducting an environmental impact investigation.
The tribe applied for a waiver from the marine mammal act in 2005, and scoping hearings on the request were held in Neah Bay, Port Angeles, Seattle and Silver Spring, Md.
The Fisheries Service said the environmental statement has been delayed by the unauthorized hunt, and that the process would be suspended until after the five men are tried.
The report is being prepared by Parametrix Inc. of Auburn.
A Parametrix subsidiary, TranTech Engineering LLC of Bellevue, has a contract-management agreement with the Makah on its construction of the Cape Flattery Scenic Byway Corridor on the reservation.
Parametrix Executive Vice President Jeff Peacock has denied that the firm has a conflict of interest arising from the double relationship.
________
Reporter Jim Casey can be reached at 360-417-3538 or at jim.casey@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: October 13. 2007 9:00PM