Tribal judge rejects whalers' plea deal

All five men who killed a gray whale last fall will face tribal charges after all, after a tribal judge this week rejected a plea bargain three of the whalers entered in federal court.

Stanley Meyers, chief judge for the Makah Nation, on Tuesday refused to accept the deal under which three of the whalers pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of violating the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act in return for the tribal charges being dismissed.

He ordered all five men to stand trial, but he also threw out the most serious charge.

The whalers had faced stiff charges in tribal court for violating the tribe's whaling-management plan. If convicted, they faced up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

But Meyers dismissed that charge, finding the plan had expired anyway when the men went on the rogue hunt last September.

The men still face tribal charges of jeopardizing public safety for discharging a firearm too close to town in Neah Bay, Clallam County, and charges of hunting in a marine sanctuary.

The whalers were surprised the judge did not accept the plea deal, said Wayne Johnson, who participated in the illegal hunt last September. "You can't trust nobody," Johnson said.

He and another whaler, Andy Noel, had refused to take the deal and were found guilty in a bench trial this month in U.S. District Court in Tacoma of one count of violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

They were resigned to also face tribal charges in court, an ordeal their fellow whalers on the hunt — Theron Parker, William Secor Jr., and Frankie Gonzalez — thought they had avoided.

Sentencing for the federal conviction is scheduled for all five men in June in U.S. District Court in Tacoma. Part of the deal also included a promise that federal prosecutors would not seek jail time.

Jack Fiander, attorney for Noel, said he wasn't surprised by the turn of events in tribal court. "I've been practicing law long enough, and in tribal court anything can happen," he said.

This isn't the first time a plea deal has fallen apart in the case.

In federal court, an earlier version of the federal plea bargain crumbled under questioning by U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Kelley Arnold when it became clear the whalers didn't understand that prosecutors, as part of the deal, might seek to block them from future hunts.

The whalers backed out of the plea bargain on the spot but took the deal three days later, on March 28, after prosecutors said they would leave it up to the tribe to decide who on the reservation could whale.

The Makah are the only tribe in the country with a treaty right to hunt whales. The tribe had worked out a management plan with the federal government under which the tribe had a permit to legally hunt whales in 1999.

But the rogue whalers had no permit from the tribe or the feds when they shot and harpooned a gray whale in the Strait of Juan de Fuca last September.

Micah McCarty, chairman of the Makah Tribal Council, declined to discuss the turn of events Friday, other than to confirm the judge's decision.

Lynda V. Mapes: 206-464-2736 or lmapes@seattletimes.com