Crown attorney David Mills will need a little more time to convince Judge Kymil Howe not to acquit a group of fish buyers accused of cooking their books.
The accused are 3T's Limited, Gauvin and Noel Compagnie Ltee., John L. Roberts and Todd Young.
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Charges were first filed in February 2012 and involve accusations of 3T’s, a fish plant in Woody Point, failing to comply with a fishing licence, making false statements to a fisheries officer and a fisheries observer unlawfully transmitting falsified information.
Young is captain of the fishing vessel Nicole Daniel, which was among the harvesters featured in the first season of "Cold Water Cowboys," a reality television series about Newfoundland and Labrador's fishing industry that aired for four seasons.
The Nicole Daniel is involved in this court case.
Roberts, Young and 3T’s are charged with eight offences each, including six for allegedly failing to comply with a fishing licence. Gauvin and Noel Compagnie Ltee, listed as the owner of the Nicole Daniel, is charged with four offences, including two counts of failing to comply with a fishing licence.
All of the defendants have single counts of making false statements to a fisheries officer and a fisheries observer unlawfully transmitting falsified information against them.
Last week, defence lawyer Robby Ash asked Howe for a directed verdict, asserting the Crown’s case was circumstantial and amounted to nothing more than speculation.
On Friday, Mills began his rebuttal of Ash’s argument. Earlier in the lengthy trial, which sat for its 81st day Friday, the court had sifted through hours upon hours of surveillance video taken by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans as it investigated catch offloading and shipping activity at the 3T’s pant.
Mills spent part of Friday going back over some of that same footage in an effort to solidify the prosecution’s argument that the amount of fish being shipped out of the plant was greater than what was being reported as caught.
Ash had argued the discrepancy could be attributed to adding salt to the herring before it was trucked away from the plant.
The Crown’s argument is that there is no evidence to suggest anything was added to the fish to account for the weight differences between the offloaded catches and the shipped product.
Mills will resume his argument against the directed verdict next Thursday.
