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REPEAT OFFENDERS ARRESTED FOR ILLEGAL
GILL NETTING
December 29, 2006
CONTACT: Gary Morse (863)-648-3200
Two Southwest Florida men with a reputation for
illegal commercial fishing were taken into custody Wednesday,
Dec. 27, and charged with a variety of offenses related to the
constitutional ban on the use of gill nets in state waters.
John Ivan Kittles, 44, of 5776 Trout Road,
Bokeelia, and Jason Clifford Erickson, 32, of 4 NW 24th Place,
Cape Coral, were identified by a Florida Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Commission officer and investigator (FWC) as the
men involved in a Tuesday, Dec. 19 incident.
Kittles is accused of four felony and seven
misdemeanor counts related to the illegal use of gill nets in
state waters. Kittles bonded out of jail Wednesday afternoon.
Kittles has been charged and convicted of similar offenses in
the past.
Erickson is accused of three felony counts
related to aiding Kittles’ illegal netting efforts and a
misdemeanor accusation of reckless vessel operation. When the
pre-Christmas incident occurred, Erickson was out on bond
stemming from earlier charges for illegal gill netting
activities that occurred in September. Erickson was denied bail
on the new charges pending a hearing.
About 4 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, FWC Investigator
Larry Jernstedt and FWC Officer Richard Wilcox were on water
patrol in the northern section of Matlacha Pass known as Indian
Fields. They became suspicious when a boat they identified as
Erickson’s passed close by at high speed. The operator then shut
off the boat’s motor and navigation lights. The officers turned
off their boat’s motor, donned night vision goggles and used a
push pole to go toward Erickson’s boat.
As the officers watched Erickson’s boat, they
noticed an intermittent light coming from the nearby mangroves.
When Erickson finally spotted the officers, he yelled repeatedly
that “the man” was approaching after which he started the engine
and revved it several times. Erickson then left the area at high
speed without turning on the boat’s navigation lights.
Jernstedt, an experienced FWC investigator,
believed Erickson was an accomplice acting as a lookout and
decoy for someone hidden behind the mangroves. As Erickson sped
away, Jernstedt and Wilcox quickly maneuvered their boat into
the mangroves where they had seen the light. They immediately
saw two vessels without navigation lights and one occupant. The
officers then shined a light on the person and vessels,
revealing Kittles, 500 yards of monofilament net with mullet
still in it, 400 pounds of mullet and two undersized snook.
Kittles jumped out of the boat after being told he was under
arrest. Wilcox chased him, but Kittles fled into the thick
mangroves and eluded officers until Wednesday when Wilcox found
him at Jug Creek Fish House and arrested him.
Kittles is accused of one felony count each of:
use of a gill net in state waters, failure to transit directly
with a gill net, gill net on a vessel less than 25 feet with
forward mounted engine and simultaneous possession of mullet and
a gill net. He also is accused of misdemeanor violations for:
gill net not marked with a Saltwater Products License (SPL)
number, commercial fishing while SPL has been permanently
revoked, resisting arrest without violence, possession of
undersized snook, over the bag limit of snook, harvesting snook
with a gill net and possession of snook during closed season.
Erickson is accused of one felony count each of
being a principal to: use of a gill net in state waters, failure
to directly transit with a gill net and simultaneous possession
of mullet and a gill net. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of
reckless vessel operation.
The two vessels occupied by Kittles, one 18 feet
and the other 15 feet in length, were seized as were the fish
and gill net. Only one of the two vessels seized had a motor.
The serial number on the lone 40 horsepower Yamaha outboard
motor had been removed.
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