Two South Florida shark divers thought they were doing the right thing.
However, John Moore Jr. and Tanner Munsell were charged with theft and were convicted in late 2022 of believing the illegal fishing longline of rescue of shark and goliath grouper.
Last week, President Donald Trump mercilessly erupted two men and erased criminal records when lawyers and critics deemed them “a government overreach.”
Their legal odyssey began on August 10, 2020, when Moore and Munsell saw a longline three miles away from the entrance to Jupiter, releasing 19 sharks and grouper from the hook and bringing the line to the shore. The US lawyers’ office accused the man of theft, and after three days of deliberation, the ju judges found they felt guilty that it was longer than the federal trial in West Palm Beach.
US District Judge Donald Middlebrooks sentenced Moore and Munsell to one year on probation and ordered fishermen at the fort, where their equipment was destroyed, to pay $3,345 in reparations. Their conviction was upheld on appeal, making them felons, unable to vote, possessing firearms or travelling freely abroad.
Miami defense attorneys Mark Saitles and Ashley Litwin Diego represent Moore at trial, defending the man’s appeal in the federal public defense attorney’s office, and were pleased with Trump’s decision to give them full leniency on Wednesday.
“We never stopped the fight and justice has finally won,” Satrus and Litwin Diego said Thursday. “We are excited that the White House is considering our argument and decided this was an unfair prosecutor. We couldn’t be happy for John and Tanner.”
Ian Goldstein, West Palm Beach defense attorney who represented Munsell, reflected their feelings.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Mr. Munsell and Mr. Moore have finally received the justice they deserve,” Goldstein said Friday. “This is a case that should never have been submitted, and this approval of something like this has been around for a long time.”
His client told the Palm Beach Post that his intention to remove the fisherman’s longline was not good and not bad.
“Whether people believe in his politics or not, he chose to forgive me. He was someone who cared deeply about the environment and wanted to help,” Munsell said in a text in the post after his forgiveness. “I can’t help but be extremely grateful.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and prosecutor Thomas Watts Fitzgerald declined to comment on the president’s pardon.
The Palm Beach Post has extensively reported on the shark diver’s incident, saying that Moore and Munsell believed they had committed no crimes from the start. That’s why they called state wildlife officers to report a longline from their Jupiter inlet, and why they smiled when they pulled their fishing gear onto the Jupiter dock – a moment filmed online and shared by local bloggers.
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Fisherman vs Shark Diver
The photo has gone viral, the post reported. It broke already tenuous ties between the local fishing and the shark diving community, prompting Scott Taylor, the boat captain of Longline to which Longline belonged, to call the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to seek a criminal investigation.
The Longline belonged to one of the only five ships in the world that NOAA was allowed to harvest sandbar sharks for research, the Post reports. Federal prosecutors argued that Moore and Munsell knew the line was legal, and thwarted it anyway, preserving the shark population for their own commercial interests.
The GoFundMe campaign raised more than $28,000 for legal defense of divers, while those launched for fishermen raised about $4,500. Divers refused the misdemeanor plea agreement on the eve of trial and chose not to testify in their defense.
After their defeat in U.S. District Court, Moore and Munsell sued the legal points regarding the definition of theft, but to no avail. However, a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned why federal prosecutors filed theft charges against them in the first place.
Similar to “Les Miserables” inspector
Appeal Judge Barbara Lagore said Watts Fitzgerald had charged the man with “reasons denying understanding.” She compared him to the inspector. Javert is a police detective in Victor Hugo’s novel Les Micerables, and has chased a man for decades over the theft of one bread.
“Moore and Munsell are felons because they tried to save the shark from what they believed was an illegal poaching operation,” Lagoa wrote. “They were the only felons I’ve ever encountered, and I called law enforcement to report on what they were seeing and what they were doing in real time in 18 years on the bench and as federal prosecutors in three years.”
Everything seemed hopeless to Moore and Munsell until the White House lawyers contacted Moore’s defense attorneys, Saitles and Litwin Diego, to inquire about the case in April. On Wednesday, the lawyers called them back with news of their pardon.
“It was incredible,” Seitrus told the Herald. “We couldn’t believe it.”
