Obama NOAA Fisheries chief won't fire employees involved in misconduct, transfers prosecutor named in abuse to high level post in New Bedford, Mass.

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1/2/2011, "NOAA's transfer of 'investigator' draws fire," Gloucester Times

"A National Oceanic and Atmospheric "criminal investigator" tied to the NOAA law enforcement's notorious push against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction

• is being reassigned to the enforcement office out of New Bedford.

And that city's mayor is outraged, calling the move "ill-advised," "uninformed," "insensitive" and "retaliatory."

Mayor Scott Lang's remarks, made to the Standard-Times of New Bedford and reported through the industry news site SavingsSeafood.com, come on the heels of reports last week that

• Susan Williams, a criminal investigator in the NOAA's Boston/Chelsea fisheries law enforcement office is in the process of
  

• being reassigned to the agency's New Bedford office, according to several sources inside and outside NOAA.

Williams played a role in an infamous prosecution of the Gloucester Auction, which, at one point, included an authorized entry by NOAA agents into the auction as documented by Gloucester police,

• and excessive tactics that sparked an investigation and
  

damning report from the Department of Commerce's Inspector General's office.

The IG's probe found widespread prosecutorial abuse and

• selective prosecution in the New England fishery,
  

• which embattled NOAA chief administrator Jane Lubchenco has pledged to correct.

And late last year, in a sworn deposition in the Gloucester auction case, special agent Michael R. Henry testified that higher-ups at NOAA,

• including Williams,
  
• participated in drafting a misleading affidavit
  

• to obtain a search warrant from an administrative judge.

However, repeated decisions now to transfer rather than fire employees involved in the abuses — including ousted NOAA police chief Dale Jones and formerly Gloucester-based NOAA prosecutor Charles Juliand — have caused the fishing industry to doubt Lubchenco's and other Obama administration officials' commitment in reforming the agency, and has raised the wrath of both Republican and Democratic members of Congress who represent coastal communities from Maine to North Carolina.

• The cities of Gloucester and New Bedford, the nation's oldest and highest-value oldest seaports, respectively, are also currently suing Lubchenco and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke for the agency's
  
• implementation of the Obama administration's "catch share" fisheries management policy,
  

which pushes for further consolidation of the New England groundfish fleet into the hands of the largest and wealthiest vessel owners, causing unemployment, and wreaking economic havoc in the two cities.

• The word that Williams is in line for reassignment to New Bedford, Lang indicated, only raises further questions regarding Lubchenco's giving serious attention to the growing NOAA enforcement scandal.

"We're apprehensive about anyone who was involved in the abuses that were documented in the inspector general's report now being transferred to New Bedford," Mayor Lang told the Standard-Times.

• Lang said that New Bedford's local NOAA office — unlike in Gloucester, where NOAA regulates fisheries from Maine to the Carolinas from its Northeast regional headquarters in Blackburn Industrial Park —
  
• has generally enjoyed a good, solid relationship with the fishing fleet.

"The individuals who work out of New Bedford, by and large, are highly respected by the fishing community," Lang said. "To bring someone into the mix

• (who was) part of the inspector general's focus is something that I don't quite understand.

"She should be monitoring freshwater pike in the Great Lakes," Lang said, not assigned to the No. 1 value fishing port in the nation, he said."

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8/23/10, "The longtime federal fisheries police chief, Dale Jones was put on paid administrative leave in April following the first report by Inspector General Todd Zinser,

• but Jones remains on the NOAA payroll to the tune of $150,000 a year."...

9/24/10, "Feds find abuse of power in prosecuting fishermen," Newsday by Mark Harrington

• "On Thursday, investigators for the U.S. Commerce Department's Office of Inspector General

released the latest in a series of reports finding fisheries lawyers and enforcement officers abused their power in prosecuting fishermen and dealers like (Warren) Kremin, who lives in Rockland County. Among the most recent charges were

• cases of excessive fines and prosecutions that all but mandated costly settlements."...

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7/13/10, "Lawyer cites ethics issues with NOAA Counsel funds," Gloucester Times, Richard Gaines

NOAA built a $49 million slush fund obtained by pressuring fishermen which the federal employees used for their own enjoyment, travel, personal vehicles. This is on top of their $5 billion budget.

• No one has been fired or even punished for the crimes.

Obama's NOAA chief Lubchenco will not allow it.

• In a recent investigation of NOAA, the US Inspector General was met by a lack of cooperation from NOAA counsel Lois Schiffer, a Lubchenco hire.

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7/13/10, Gloucester Times: "The letter also openly challenges Schiffer's written plan not to look back at any miscarriages of justice by NOAA lawyers and agents. Due to Internet transmission problems, Schiffer's office could not be presented with questions about today's story until nearly deadline, so no responses were available....

• Congressional reaction to the (US Inspector General's) IG's report has been angry and varied."...

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