By Sentinel Staff
Charges were dismissed against a Douglas man who was alleged to have committed Fish and Game violations related to the sale of subsistence-taken herring eggs in 2017.
Jeffery D. Katasse, 65, was charged on March 14, 2018, with six counts of transporting, selling, taking or offering for sale subsistence-taken herring eggs, and six counts of buying or selling subsistence-taken eggs on or about April 7, 2017. Both are class A misdemeanors.
Court documents said Troopers had observed Katasse and another man setting and harvesting hemlock branches in waters near Sitka during the subsistence fishery in April 2017.
The documents allege that Katasse placed ads online, including on Facebook, for herring eggs on branches, which he packed in boxes and sold to buyers in Kake and Bethel.
The case was scheduled for trial next month when the state dismissed all 12 of the misdemeanor counts.
The charging document by the criminal division of the Alaska Department of Law in Anchorage said Katasse’s subsistence herring egg recipients said he charged $150 per box of herring eggs, “and the recipient also paid the shipping.”
“Shipping records indicate that Katasse had also shipped herring eggs to Anchorage and other locations in Alaska in 2017, 2015, 2014, and 2013,” stated the information that was with the charges that were dismissed.
Court documents did not state the reason the state dismissed the charges, and the Sentinel’s calls to the Department of Law were not returned.
