CHARLEVOIX, Mich. (AP) — A fish wholesaler in northern Michigan has been given a significant break after federal officials said they couldn’t arrange his unusual jail sentence.
John Cross III of Charlevoix will serve four months of home detention without an electronic tether, according to a Feb. 18 order by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney. He can leave home to go to work.
Cross pleaded guilty to acquiring trout that were illegally caught in the Great Lakes.
The government said Cross and his business, Cross Fisheries, bought about 50,000 pounds of lake trout from a fisherman who was using so-called trap nets. Those fish should have been thrown back into the water.
Cross was sentenced last spring to a year in jail, a term to be served three to four months at a time outside the fishing season.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons, however, questioned the legality of an intermittent sentence.
