Cleveland, Ohio – Two fishermen taking part in a competition who pleaded guilty charged with fraud after being disqualified from the Lake Erie Walleye Trail (LEWT) Championships in September 2022, will go to prison.
Cuyahoga County Community Motions Judge Steven Gall sentenced Jacob Runyan and Chase Cominsky to 10 days in the Cuyahoga County Jail plus a year and a half of probation and a maximum fishing license suspension of three years.
Additionally, they were fined $2,500, a portion of which may be donated to a reputable children’s and fishing charity.
On March 27, Runyan, of Cleveland, Ohio, and Cominsky, of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud, a fifth-degree felony, and illegal possession of wildlife, a fourth-degree misdemeanor. Prosecutors dropped additional charges of possession of criminal tools and attempted theft as part of a deal struck with the couple.
In addition, Cominsky’s Ranger bass boat estimated at $130,000 (which was used in the tournament) was forfeited to the Ohio DNR.
“I have no doubt that these two cheaters have cheated in many tournaments over the last few years. Unfortunately, we can only hold them accountable for what they did on September 30, 2022.” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael O’Malley said. “While these two deserve lifetime fishing license suspensions, the law allows for a maximum of three years. These two should be banned from all fishing competitions for life. They are thieves and now they are convicted criminals. This sends a message to the fishing community that fraudsters will be held accountable in Cuyahoga County.”
Runyan and Cominsky, who were leading both the tournament and the LEWT Team of the Year competition at the time of the incident, were disqualified from the championship when tournament director Jason Fischer cut open five of the entered fish and found them stuffed with lead weights and fillets of smaller walleyes. A cellphone video of Fischer cutting up a zander was posted online, and the scandal attracted national attention. If the pair had won the tournament, they would have received $28,760 in prizes.
Runyan and Cominsky apologized after the verdict. They apologized to their families and the fishing community.
A Michigan angler was recently in a similar situation kicked out of the sucker fishing tournament for stuffing fish with lead weights. As reported in the April 26 issue of Michigan Outdoor News, an angler at Omer Suckerfest was caught cheating by stuffing fish with lead weights, according to event organizers.
Tournament organizers did not release the angler’s name, saying they found lead weights embedded in the fish’s head, directly behind the gills. In this situation, according to the organizers, the person folding the weighted fish admitted to pushing the weights into it.
According to the Michigan DNR, no fishing regulations were broken, so it had no authority to investigate. Theft by conversion (accepting money under false pretenses) is a civil matter. Tournament officials banned the man from participating in future tournaments but refused to contact law enforcement.
