TACOMA — Two of five Makah tribal members who killed a gray whale last September will do time in federal prison, a magistrate judge ordered Monday.
Wayne Johnson was handed a five-month prison sentence, along with 175 hours of community service and one year of probation.
Andy Noel received a 90-day prison sentence, along with 200 hours of service and one-year probation.
The remaining three — Theron Parker, Frankie Gonzales and William Secor Sr. — all who accepted a plea bargain and pleaded guilty, were handed two years of probation and a $25 fine each.
Magistrate J. Kelley Arnold said the stronger sentences against Johnson and Noel were based on their organizational and leadership roles in the illegal hunt last Sept. 8.
A full report will appear in Tuesday’s editions of the Peninsula Daily News.
EARLIER REPORT:
Makah chairman refutes defendant’s court memo, says tribe didn’t know about Sept. 8 whaling beforehand
By Leah Leach
NEAH BAY — The Makah Tribal Council did not have prior knowledge of — or approve — a whale hunt on Sept. 8, Micah McCarty, tribal chairman, declared Sunday.
“Our position’s been well-known for months,” he told the Peninsula Daily News.
McCarty was responding to a PDN report in Sunday’s editions quoting documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Tacoma which allege that the tribal council had given its approval to the hunt before it occurred.
Paul Olson, court-appointed attorney for one of the hunters, Theron Parker, filed the documents with the federal court last week in a bid for Parker’s leniency in a sentencing hearing in Tacoma today.
“The Tribal Council did not know” about the hunt before it happened, said McCarty, who was serving on the council but was not tribal chairman at the time of the incident in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
“The whole tribe was not behind this,” he said.
“There was no official approval of this hunt.
“We’re not interested in rehashing the past. We’re committed to moving forward.”
Contacted Friday, McCarty said he was unaware of the court memo and its contents, and did not return calls asking for additional comment on Saturday before Sunday’s PDN report.
Parker and four other Neah Bay men — Wayne Johnson, Frankie Gonzales, William Secor and Andy Noel — are scheduled to appear at 3 p.m. today before Magistrate Judge J. Kelley Arnold for sentencing on misdemeanor charges in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, 1717 Pacific Ave., Tacoma.
