The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been ordered to produce for judicial review hundreds of internal documents the counsel's office has resisted turning over to the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction as it prepares for a March 2 trial date.
The case helped trigger a federal Inspector General's national investigation into policing and prosecutorial misconduct on the part of NOAA enforcement.
Among the approximately 350 documents held back on various theories of "privilege" by NOAA regional counsel are a series that seemingly track an operations plan ("ops plan") over the months leading up to a raid by armed NOAA enforcement agents of the auction in December 2006 for reporting failures of fish deliveries.