Last week, however, NOAA officials failed to provide a copy of the Administrative law judge contract or respond to Times queries about the specific duration of the contract and when it would be terminated.

The auction settled the case before ALJ Walter J. Brudzinski before it came to trial, but Brudzinski had placed a gag order on the auction defense team barring it from discussing or releasing a mass of internal NOAA documents about the case as it was being organized.

Now, Brudzinski is reassigned to hear the auction's case for reimbursement of legal fees.
Special Master Charles B. Swartwood III had determined that despite an enormous output in time and energy including an illegal forced entry to the building and improper pressure on fishermen to "rat out" the business, the government had produced no evidence of any illegal activities at the auction, the main platform for the sale of seafood from the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.

Also, Administrative Law Judge Parlen McKenna, who was the trial judge for the NOAA case against Yacubian for fishing in closed areas, was alleged by Swartwood to have been involved in the appearance of a conflict of interest by consorting with Yacubian's prosecutors while involved in adjudicating the matter.

McKenna has rebutted the allegations in a lengthy legal document appended to an unrelated case.
The decision by NOAA to continue using the Coast Guard administrative judicial system in the face of Locke's May order to terminate the practice has antagonized further much of the fishing community, which long has objected to the mistreatment much of which was documented by the Commerce Department inspector general in 2010.

"From my perspective," said Paul Muniz of Burns and Levenson, which has represented the Gloucester auction in its NOAA cases, "this latest pronouncement is emblematic of the agency's continued arrogance and disdain for the industry and also says something about the sincerity of the agency's apology."

"It shows no good faith," New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang said in response to the SavingSeafood report.

 Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times