CHARLEVOIX, MI – A fish wholesaler in Northern Michigan has been a significant break after federal officials were unable to arrange his unusual jail sentence.
The Associated Press reports that John Cross III of Charlevoix will serve four months of home detention without an electronic tether instead of the year in jail he was sentenced to in April of 2019.
Cross pleaded guilty to buying about 50,000 pounds of lake trout from fishermen who was using so-called trap nets. Those fish should have been thrown back into the water.
Federal officials had planned to allow Cross to serve three to four months at a time outside the fishing season, but the sentence has been thrown out because the U.S. Bureau of Prisons questioned the legality of an intermittent sentence, according to the Associated Press.
A Feb. 18 order by U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney says he can leave home to go to work during the new four-month sentence, the Associated Press reported.
Cross, who said he was “truly sorry” when sentenced to jail time, is the owner of John Cross Fisheries in Charlevoix.
