Man charged with cheating in Lake Fork tournament

http://easttexasradio.com/man-indicted-f...gn=Postcron.com

Bless his heart

Anybody know what he did?

At the Berkley tournament I caught a slot with a tail that had obviously been trimmed in the past. I wonder how common that is.

http://www.grindtv.com/fishing/angler-ca...iFF8oFUfe6tg.97

Punishment should be to have his fingertips cut off....

Taliban much ?

Sorry , thought I was in the Bunker .

This is the same one that tried cheating one of the big bass tournaments this fall . They are just now getting around to taking him to court.

Tip of the nose, that way we can all identify him.

His name is Prick it

Who is that?

Tony Romo Dad

A felony seems a bit much. I get that he's terrible, but ruining a guys life over a fishing tournament seems a little extreme.

Wouldnt he be the one that ruined his life? Choices, we make them everyday...He made the wrong one and got caught

I bet people would feel different if he came to their house and tried stealing directly from them.

Fair point. And a good point.

I feel sorry for someone who would go to those measures to win a tournament..
what was he thinking,...?? I don't get it..

+1

The point of punishment is to deter others from doing the same criminal act. I think a felony is fine for it, maybe the next person who thinks of cheating for a prize of $10k+ will look at this and decide it isnt worth it.

He will have to post bond, hire an attorney, and stand trial. A felony will hang around on him like stink. Probably cost $15,000-$20,000 if he is lucky. hope it was worth it to him. His choice.

Assuming he works a normal job Monday through Friday, he should have to spend his weekends in jail. All 52 of them. When he checks into jail, he should have to breath into a breathalyzer and [censored] into a cup to ensure he is living clean.

I cant believe when they finally catch one of the many that do it some say the punishment is too hard.

Cheating, lying, thieving bas---ds! Break out the hangman's noose! JMHO

stealing is stealing, even though he didnt get away with it, he could have.

He shouldve thought about that before he done it.

yep, what is the difference between trying to cheat a tournament out of more than 10k and trying to rob a bank of over 10k?

^ nothing

I think it is more about protecting the integrity of the tournament? These events draw and are good for fishing if and only if the ethics/integrity are protected. This kind of news does seem to protect and I am glad to see there are consequences to bad choices. The degree of punishment may or may not be excessive, not up to me, however the overall impact may help preserve something special to all of us who fish in competitions like this.

This thinking makes me insane. He tried to steal. Lock his a** up

Where were you tonight?

Bank is Federal- FBI

With all due respect are you a felon or possibly kin to this theft? I think he changed his own life. It's all about taking responsibility for your actions. The a bit much is him attempting to steal money not the act of fishing a tournament. If convicted he is a theft.

A theft of $10k in Texas is a State jail felony. I wouldn't expect cheating others in a tournament venue to be any less. IF I were the SECOND place guy behind him and found later that I had the legal winning bag I'd be plenty mad. I paid my entry fees and fished fair and square yet the cheater won? No, I'm glad it's a 3rd degree because to win he had to do more than just simply steal something. It took thought and a plan to pull off something like this. IMHO punishment fits.

Hard to stop bad behavior without consequences...... Unless it's somebody the powers that be want to protect Was the guy in a red Basscat with a neon hat??

Cheating is stealing plain and simple, cut and dry. You are told from 1st grade all the way to college not to cheat. Should of sunk in but obviously it didn't, bet it's sunk in now

Karma!

And while thugs are stealing cars and trucks well over 20 grand and getting a slap on the wrist the next thug gets alot worse for stealing a cow.

And there is no room in prison because someone got caught smoking pot 3 times.

Very true. ^^^ We had two cases last month locally that blew my mind and both cases went down like deceived above.


In this case, the idiot made a bad decision and it will be time to pay for it soon. I am all for prosecuting him with a felony, after all, it is a felony. Once a thief, always a theif in my book.

The dumb arse will only get probation. You must not have been around here when RR robbed from us for years . And I just lost respect for you .

Punishment fits the crime - IMHO. Cheating is stealing and there should never be an allowance for that. It hurts me to see the entire sport of fishing to continue to carry the burden of a few cheats in a sport where everyone has a chance to be honest.

It's not about ruining a guy's life over a fishing tournament. Actually, the fishing tournament part of it is irrelevant. At it's core, it's about making someone pay for committing a crime. And that crime involves cheating to obtain money that belongs to someone else. In this case, thousands of dollars.

I guess rapist and thieves shouldn't have their lives ruined either.... I mean I guess it's just fishing....


I say serve time and loose their license for life! Too bad you can't stomp someone without risking your license an assault charges.

I don't fish many tournies anymore on Fork but if I did I would start checking the tales before they went into the live well. What if you put one in there and didn't see the tale was already trimmed? That would suck!

if you were fishing a tournament on a slot lake like fork an you didn't check it with all the ways folks have tried to shorten fish to be under it would be your own fault. if it even looks like its been altered throw it back .

Yet we have professional athletes who dope up to increase their on field performances, helping to secure monster contracts they would not have otherwise got. In my opinion that is just as wrong yet those guys barely get slaps on the wrist. I am in no way defending the guy, he's a thief plain and simple. Unfortunately cheating is a lot more common than most of us would like to think.

So if your the second place guy its no different than if he came to your home stealing your truck, boat, 7K . Could be shot for that.
Also what a terrible trim job, And still tried to weigh that in ?? Makes me think even more of a dumb a...

Not illegal to possess a fish that had been altered. It is illegal to do the altering. Now, the tournament may not accept it but you didn't break a law.

This thread made me remember the incident with John Fox. What ever happened to him?

He ruined it. No one else.

So true

So I guess in your liberal opinion, shooting him in head would be a little harsh?

drown him

Hmm? I don't think I'd want to foist the $40,000 annual cost of incarcerating this guy for this sort of non-violent felony . . . on society. Too expensive. Let him keep working and support himself.

I'd start off by revoking his fishing license for some period of time, ban him from any tournament participation . . . at least 5 or 10 years. Then, I'd sentence him to time spent collecting trash around a lake (or lakes) near his home on Saturdays for, I don't know, maybe a year.

Brad

Did not read all the pages here but the above makes some sense. I would add that IMO if convicted he should never be able to hold a Texas Fishing License...ever..

What if he actually caught it like that? It's improbable but not impossible. From the picture you can't really tell if it's freshly trimmed or not. It is a real bad trim job. They can get the Warden to testify as his opinion that it's freshly trimmed. Of course he could have caught it earlier, trimmed it, kept it and then weighed it.

They will probably plea this with him. It might be hard to get a conviction in a jury trial unless they have a confession or some evidence more than just the trimmed tail. It's a felony so it's going to be beyond a reasonable doubt. You can bet a half decent attorney won't let a tournament angler on the jury.

He tried to steal the $2500 Prize for the under. That is a felony. He deserves what he gets.

The guy admitted his guilt. You can what if it to death, but guilty is guilty.

In Katy... maybe ill run into him.

Now Bryan....................

I don't think he should be beat with a bat but he should sit in jail a month or so to think about things, then no license for long time and zero tourneys as a condition of his sentence. Get caught fishing tourney anywhere go back to jail for a year. And yes a felony. Let him explain it to future employers.

Not literally...

+ 1

At what point would it be worth it? $10,000, $40,000, $100,000? It is a state jail felony, are there others you're willing to let off with a hand slap? Identity Theft, 3rd DWI, possession of child pornography?

I say book him fully, he admitted to the officials he altered the fish. A good lawyer may be able to get him leniency, but I believe sentencing guidelines are in place...

Virtually every tournament association in the country bans cheaters for life. One of the first questions asked on most polygraph tests for money winners is "have you ever cheated in a bass tournament?t"...Once upon a time, I think it was 1988 ish, the Granbury Bass Club DQ'd the top two or three finishers in it's open tournament for failing the polygraph test, and as I remember, that was the question. The entry form stated that anyone who had been previously DQ'd from a tournament was ineligible to compete, and that his how we got them...

You and my teenager would get along great! I mean, it wasn't his fault if you think about it. It was his raising. Blame the parents I say!

Integrity of the sport... How do we make sure people like this never enter another tournament? Its important to the fishing public to see an individual in these circumstances be prosecuted to the fullest extent. This creates the integrity, we as anglers, want in our sport.

Once you create the perception that all u get is a hand slap for trying to cheat in a tournament, there will be dozens more trying to cheat.

This is the guy from Big Bass Splash that cut the tail on a fish the last hour! Even if he didn't get caught his fish still wouldn't have won the heavy under for the event because his was a 2.58 and my brothers was a 2.59. Not worth no $2500 he would have won!

Isn't a difference between DQ and Cheating? let's say you are late to weigh in but you have your fish ready but the TD says you missed your cut off time and he DQ your bag? i don't think that is called cheating?

I covered a confession as a factor. If he is guilty then the felony and associated punishment is what he should get. I haven't seen anywhere that says he confessed but could have missed it.

David, well 50 Saturdays of picking up wrappers and trash over a long year would actually be a pretty good deterrent for many people. But, no, this has no relationship to ID theft, DWIs and child pornography where recidivism is extremely high. We incarcerate people committing those crimes to punish them . . . but it also makes society safer while they are put away.

He'll have no reason to trim tails ever again if he isn't able to compete.

I'm all for public service hours, the lost weekends, a financial fine, loss of license permanently or for a long time and lifetime bans from tournaments. Spending 40 grand, the cost of a year in prison these days? Nah! Save the cell for one of those others you mention.

Brad

The confession part was in the publication the TPW puts out. Said when questioned at tourney he admitted to it. He may have changed that plea after getting a lawyer. No violence was involved so he will serve little time of any. I think if found guilty, he loses all fishing priveleges in the state and can't fish tournaments