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Court upholds fishing captain’s attempted theft conviction

MADISON — A judge properly convicted a fishing boat captain of helping his charter stuff a weight inside a fish in hopes of winning thousands of dollars in tournament prizes, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday.


Michael Cefalu

According to court documents, Michael Cefalu took Orlynn Helt out fishing during the Kewaunee/Door Salmon Tournament in July 2013. The first-place prize was $10,000 cash plus $1,500 in prizes.

Helt registered a 30.27-pound Chinook salmon, although Cefalu took the lead in interacting with tournament officials during the weigh-in. The state record for a Chinook salmon is 44 pounds, 5 ounces, caught in 1994 in Lake Michigan in Door County.

The tournament president scanned the salmon before weighing it with a metal detector and discovered metal within it. He directed Cefalu to cut the fish open. Cefalu was reluctant, saying he wanted to preserve it for mounting, but ultimately complied. The president found a 1-pound weight in the fish’s throat.

Cefalu said that the fish must have sucked the weight up off the bottom of Lake Michigan. The president disqualified the salmon and told Cefalu he would contact the authorities. The captain quickly filleted the fish and left.

Helt was charged with misdemeanor attempted theft by fraud and paid a $1,000 fine. Cefalu was charged with felony attempted theft by fraud of property worth between $5,000 and $10,000. Door County Circuit Judge Peter Diltz convicted him in 2016 after a bench trial. He was ordered to pay a $2,500 fine.

Cefalu argued there wasn’t enough evidence to support a conviction and that the salmon was worth less than $5,000, insisting if the fish hadn’t been disqualified it would have won the $1,000 third-place prize.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals rejected his arguments and agreed with Diltz’s conclusions that the men on Cefalu’s boat were the only ones with motive and opportunity to place the weight in the fish. Regardless of whether Cefalu did it himself, he clearly helped another person try to commit fraud by presenting the fish for weighing and taking the lead with tournament officials, the court found.

Cefalu was reluctant to cut the fish open but quickly filleted it after it was disqualified, casting doubt on his claim that he wanted to mount it, the court noted. His assertion that the fish must have sucked the weight up from the lake bottom was an incredible claim from a 30-year fishing captain, the court added.

The court also agreed with the tournament president’s testimony that tournament winners often split winnings and Cefalu’s business would have benefited from promoting the win.

As for the value of the fish, the court found that at the time Cefalu registered the salmon, it was largest entry and Cefalu’s attorneys didn’t show that Cefalu was trying to win less than the first-place prize.

Cefalu’s attorney, Howard Mitz, declined to comment, saying he hadn’t seen the ruling.

Wisconsin hosts hundreds of fishing tournaments annually with tens of thousands of anglers vying for lucrative prizes. Tournament payouts totaled $11.7 million from 2014 to 2016, according to the latest data on the state Department of Natural Resources’ website.

Unbelievable that someone would try that........

It happens and thats why other orgs. have had to change or adopt new rules.

Monday, October 11, 2010
Salmon tourney turmoil settled

www.ludingtondailynews.com/news/52629

Manistee bans Best Chance, Ludington drafts new rule

By BRIAN MULHERIN

Daily News Staff Writer

It’s a good bet that Saugatuck-based charter boat Best Chance Too won’t be sighted at fishing tournaments near Big Point Sable in 2011.

The organizers of the Manistee Salmon Splash and 333 said they will refuse any entries from Best Chance Too in 2011, while the Ludington Offshore Classic Tournament Committee and Ludington & Scottville Area Chamber of Commerce have drafted a rule allowing them to refuse entry to anyone. The captains of Best Chance Too have indicated to tournament organizers they will not fish the Ludington event next year.

Best Chance Too was allowed to withdraw from the 2010 Ludington Offshore Classic after protests followed their apparent victory in the pro division of the tournament. Witnesses alleged the crew of the boat was aggressive in handling smaller fish, with the apparent intention of bettering their catch in the salmon tournament decided by weight.

“There was some guys on another boat who thought we were being over-aggressive landing fish,” Best Chance Too Co-Captain Dave Engel said after the event. “They questioned our observer and he said we probably were on a few, they questioned that we didn’t get the net fast enough on some little fish. It was a ‘he said, she said, they said’ kind of thing and it kind of seemed to us like it was a done deal. We said ‘if you guys don’t think we did it right, we’ll just withdraw from the tournament.’”

Tournament rules at the time stated “Any intentional act, such as, but not limited to, shaking off, breaking off, burning off, etc. fish will subject team to disqualification.”

Whether that rule still exists is unknown, as the rules have been taken off of the Offshore Classic website and replaced with the following:

“Following a review of the 2010 Ludington Offshore Classic Tournament, the Ludington Offshore Classic Tournament Committee (“Committee”) has proposed, and the Ludington & Scottville Area Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber”) Board of Directors has adopted the following rule, which will pertain to all future tournament entries:

“The Tournament Committee reserves the right to decline entry or participation by any person, team or boat as deemed necessary to ensure such things as integrity, image, reputation, financial performance and community relationship with sponsors, participants and supporting groups.

“A formal review of the tournament rules is under way and all rules for the 2011 tournament will be posted following their adoption.”

Ludington & Scottville Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kathy Maclean said she does not expect Best Chance Too to enter next year’s event.

“They have indicated they will not be returning to our tournament,” Maclean said.

“I hope that we can move on and begin planning for 2011.”

Calls to Engel and co-captain Bill Bale were not returned.

Scott MacDonald, who runs the 333 and the Salmon Splash with his father, Fred, said they organized a meeting in Holland this week to talk about the incident at the Ludington tournament, but the meeting was sidetracked before it began.

“It was attempted to be organized by us,” MacDonald said. “The purpose of the meeting was to review what happened at the Ludington Tournament and review what our findings are and pass them along to the members of our tournament trail — the 333 member tournaments.”

The 333 is a tournament within a tournament conducted in almost every port with a major salmon tournament on Lake Michigan. Participants can weigh three fish at a given tournament and the heaviest win, although there are also prizes that count standings throughout the season and prizes at each event for the largest of an individual species of fish.

“That was our only goal was to state what we found out and to share what our plans were and to tell them how we were going to handle it,” MacDonald said. “If any of the tournaments wanted to follow suit, they were welcome to.”

MacDonald said he and his father attempted to talk about the Ludington incident at the meeting but were never allowed to.

“There certainly was two sides at that meeting, which I guess wasn’t surprising to me,” MacDonald said. “I was a little disappointed with how the meeting went. Not the outcome, but there were people who came to that meeting who I really don’t think had a reason to be there, they really came to disrupt the proceedings.”

Committee of tournaments

MacDonald said the tournament representatives there did agree in principle to attempt to form a committee of tournaments that would rule on incidents and each tournament would agree to abide by the findings.

“As far as uniformity in the rules, the meeting came around to that eventually,” MacDonald said. He said the hope is that if the tournaments can’t agree on rules they can at least agree on procedures for protests.

“I believe the ball is rolling,” MacDonald said. “John Watson, the tournament director of the Saugatuck tournament, volunteered to chair a committee that would consist of one member of every tournament committee and one alternate to try to come up with a set of uniform rules that all the tournaments can agree on. I think the main intent is to come up with rules on how protests will be handled.

“My understanding was to be involved in the committee you have to commit to it that the tournaments would stand as one if an incident like this were to happen again.”

Regardless of how the individual tournaments move forward, MacDonald said the course for 2011 is set for the 333 and the Manistee Salmon Splash.

“We’re going to decline any entries from Best Chance in the 2011 season,” MacDonald said.
Best Chance is also the one that complained to Jay Wesley that there needs to be more Lakers in the Saugatuck area.

Remember that one about Best Chance. Guess they got both of their wishes, more lakers and sorting fish in tournaments. Think they dropped out of the tournament after they were accused of using the net to knock smaller fish off the lines which is a form of sorting since at that time you had to keep what you caught, think at the time was first 15 fish boated and weigh you best 10. If they withdrew from tournament they would be able to fish the circuit, if they didn't withdraw and claimed 1 place prize, and later were found guilty of the charge, they would of had a lifetime band from tournament fishing. Don't know if this had anything to do with it, but the next year the tournament committee approved sorting fish which I think is still being practice today. Best Chance I do believe fishes all the tournament except the one in Ludington. Mike