Two federal fishery law enforcement agents visited Monte Rome last week at his Intershell speciality seafood distributorship, as Rome prepared to testify as a witness for the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction at the trial scheduled to begin five days later.
Rome was preparing to testify under oath about a conversation he had a number of years ago with Charles E. Juliand, who heads the Office of General Counsel in Gloucester. And Rome said the agents wanted to know what he intended to say in his testimony — specifically about his 4-year-old conversation with Juliand.
One of the agents was James M. MacDonald, special agent, for the Office of Law Enforcement, National Marine Fisheries Service.
Rome said the agents appealed to his "spirit of cooperation. "He was furious, and said, "How dare you come in here and ask me to speak to a federal agent."
The action is drawing questions and fire from state Attorney General Martha Coakley, U.S. Sen. John Kerry and others.
The flashpoint conversation between Rome and Juliand occurred sometime after Juliand in early 2006 had lost a trial in which he attempted to shut down the auction for accepting for sale too much cod. Because the auction dared go to trial and actually won, the case took on a certain legendary status along the waterfront.
Juliand appealed the judge's brooming of his case to the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who reversed the trial judge. The case remained active on appeal until Tuesday when the auction settled all its legal problems without admitting violations.
Last week, Rome was prepared to testify in the latest case against the auction that Juliand — with whom he was having a discussion of federal regulations of fish parts — described Larry Ciulla, president of the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction as a "lying piece of scumbag (expletive)."
Rome told the Times that MacDonald and his partner told him, "We understand you said Chuck Juliand said these things about Larry."
Many fishermen have also told the Times and the Inspector General that NOAA's NMFS investigators promised to drop charges for "ratting out" the auction.
Juliand and MacDonald did not return phone calls.