Cortez fisherman John Yates had a bizarre conviction for missing grouper overturned by the Supreme Court in 2015. It came at a cost.

John Yates lives with his wife, Sandy, in a triple-wide manufactured home in Ellenton, Social Security checks their main source of income. They were once involved in a landmark case heard by the Supreme Court. You would never know they won.

"We’re making it, but that’s about all we’re doing,’’ he said. "It was rough there for a while. We lost everything we had.’’

The peculiar case of Yates vs. the United States began on Aug. 23, 2007, aboard the "Miss Katie," about 60 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s where John Yates, fishing captain, was hauling in red grouper. His life forever changed the moment a federal officer arrived on scene for an inspection.

The officer noticed undersized fish hanging on a hook. They appeared to be under the 20-inch harvesting minimum for grouper. The next thing Yates knew he was emptying 3,000 pounds on his deck for an inspection that found 72 fish were undersized. Yates was ordered to put the fish in wooden boxes to be re-measured once he returned to port in Cortez.

Four days later the fish were measured again, only the undersized count was different. This time it was 69. It seemed three fish were missing and the officer suspected the evidence — fish — had been tampered with. Not so, Yates, argued. When the fish were measured on board they were frozen. When they were measured in Cortez they had thawed. Frozen fish are always smaller, Yates said. In essence, some had gained length. However, a fisherman on board testified in court Yates ordered the undersized fish thrown overboard and replaced.

Yates was looking at 30 years. He was charged with lying to federal officers (five years; he was found not guilty), destroying evidence during a search and seizure (five years; guilty) and violating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (20 years; guilty).

Sarbanes-Oxley became law after the infamous Enron scandal, during which thousands of documents were shredded. It is aimed at white-collar criminals to prevent the destruction of "any record, documents or tangible object’’ in order to obstruct an investigation. Yates filed an appeal to his conviction that defied all odds and wound up being heard by the Supreme Court.

At issue: Are fish "tangible objects?’’

Two opinions were written in 2015 and five Justices agreed with Yates and overturned his conviction.

"You make him sound like a mob boss or something,’’ Chief Justice John Roberts said in court.

"Perhaps Congress should have called this the Sarbanes-Oxley-Grouper Act,’’ Justice Anthony Kennedy quipped.

In dissenting, Justice Elena Kagan invoked Dr. Seuss in writing: "A fish is, of course, a discrete thing that possesses physical form. See generally Dr. Seuss, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.’’

Kagan went on to write: "A person who hides a murder victim’s body is no less culpable than one who burn’s the victim’s diary.’’

The case became such a landmark that Justice Neil Gorsuch even mentioned it during his confirmation hearing in 2017 after Senator Ted Cruz asked him his thoughts on how the Constitution intersects with modern technology.

"You know,’’ Gorsuch said. "My favorite case in statutory interpretation, when I teach this stuff and talk to my law clerks about it, is the fish story.

"It was a great case, and it divided in a way that people did not expect.’’

John and Sandy Yates said the whole ordeal deprived John of perhaps $1 million in earnings as a boat captain. She said the total bill for taxpayers to prosecute a case over three missing fish was as high as $11 million.

Even though the Supreme Court overturned Yates’ Sarbanes-Oxley conviction, it did not hear the destroying evidence conviction, meaning it remains on Yates’ record. The only way for it be removed, he said, would be from an act by President Trump.

The couple have lost cars, boats and jobs since the ordeal began. John is 67. He still fishes for grouper occasionally, but he does not have his own boat and makes only a fraction of what he did as a captain.

Sandy Yates says they stopped receiving their mail at their home address and had to secure a post office box instead. She wonders who was behind it. She also wonders if the government is not monitoring her online activity.

"They play dirty,’’ she said. "Just because they can. They don’t like to lose. Financially it was devastating. They try and destroy you, but you can’t let them do it.’’

She said she likely spent 3,000 hours researching the case and still has all of her documentation. She is in the process of writing a book. One question: Who would believe it?

"They took a charge written for Bernie Madoff and tried to apply it to fish,’’ she said.

"You can’t make this stuff up.’’

Contact columnist Chris Anderson at chris.anderson@heraldtribune.com.