As per the information three Rapid River men who were permanently denied their tribal right to fish, had fines and punishments revoked or reduced in an appeals case decision announced Thursday at tribal court in Sault Ste. Marie. They were three brothers, Andrew, Kevin and John Schwartz, all were sentenced Aug. 20 in tribal court in Manistique on 79 violations relating to illegal commercial fishing operations in Little Bay de Noc. They were initially ticketed for 105 civil infractions.
The court has ordered them not to use their tribal right to fish and in addition they were also ordered to pay $13,175 in fines and costs. The tribal court reconsidered many of the previous rulings in the appeals process, which began with an appeals hearing Jan. 20. The Schwartzes tribal right to fish was reduced to a one-year sentence, said Brenda Brownlee, civil clerk at tribal court, this morning.
Other tribal members cited for violations were brothers Troy Jensen and Wade Jensen, tribally-licensed commercial fishermen. The non-native arrested was John Halverson, a state-licensed wholesaler. The three men, from the Garden Peninsula, are each charged with unlawfully conspiring with one another and four others to buy/sell fish taken without a commercial fishing license from 2004-2009 in Delta County.
