Whalers reject plea deal

A plea agreement involving five members of the Makah tribe who killed a gray whale during a rogue hunt last September fell apart in court Monday, after federal prosecutors said they might seek to curtail the men’s hunting rights.

The hunters said they had no idea that was part of the deal and that they would rather go to trial.

“I have no choice but to go all the way now,” Wayne Johnson, who led the whaling crew, said after the hearing in U.S. District Court. “You can’t trust Uncle Sam.”

The five defendants -- Johnson, Theron Parker, Andy Noel, William Secor and Frankie Gonzales -- had agreed to plead guilty to one count of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act for harpooning and shooting the whale off Washington’s northwestern coast. In exchange, the government said it would not recommend jail time.

But the plea agreement did not spell out what the government would seek in terms of punishment.

In court, Chief Magistrate Judge J. Kelley Arnold asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Oesterle to explain, so the men would understand the terms under which they were pleading guilty.

Oesterle said the government would not seek jail time, but reserved the right to seek a fine as well as probation lasting as long as five years, which could include conditions such as community service.

Eventually, the U.S. attorney in Seattle, Jeff Sullivan, asked to address the court and announced that the government was also interested in preventing the men from whaling while on probation.

“Mr. Johnson, is that news to you?” the judge asked.

“Big news,” he said.

Noel said: “Yes it is, and I don’t agree with it.”

Arnold scheduled another hearing for Thursday.

The Makah people gave up ancestral lands to the U.S. in an 1855 treaty that gave them the right to whale in certain areas.

That right has been limited by case law requiring tribe members to obtain permits under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Sullivan said.