And another close to home.

State Supreme Court rules against fishing rights claim

By Brad Shannon

The Olympian

Friday November 14, 2008





The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a Chehalis tribe member is prevented from owning a gill net as part of his sentence on state criminal charges that he illegally fished on nontribal land.

The unanimous ruling, written by Justice Charles Johnson, reversed part of a Court of Appeals decision.


It means that Gerald Cayenne, an enrolled member of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis, can be prohibited by a state court from owning a gill net as part of his eight-month sentence - despite his claims of native fishing rights ensured by the federal government.

"Limiting the trial court's sentencing authority, as Cayenne requests, would create the unwanted result of permitting tribal lands to be havens for criminals avoiding justice after violating state laws," Johnson wrote.

Johnson added that courts may impose crime-related sanctions "to the extent they serve the purpose of sentencing and the crime related-prohibitions follow the individual during the prohibition's validity."

A jury convicted Cayenne of one felony count of fishing illegally with a net. A judge in Grays Harbor County Superior Court then imposed the gill-net prohibition as part of an eight-month sentence. The Court of Appeals overturned the fish-net sanction on grounds that state courts could not restrict Cayenne's fishing rights while on the reservation.

"It is the first time the Washington Supreme Court said it's OK to regulate tribal members' activities on the reservation ." said Gregory Link, one of two lawyers with the Washington Appellate Project who handled Cayenne's appeal. Link said it is too early to say whether another appeal will be made to the federal courts.

Attorney Jay Geck, who wrote a friend-of-court brief in the case for the Attorney General's Office, said the ruling follows a U.S. Supreme Court precedent in extending court orders onto reservations.

The case dated to 2005, when enforcement officers with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife saw Cayenne illegally using a gill net along the Chehalis River in an area off of the reservation. He was arrested and charged with two felony counts of unlawful use of nets.