COAST TAB

Tradewinds Charters operates out of a sales office next to the bridge in Depoe Bay. File photograph from 2006.

(The Oregonian/OregonLive)

The owners, employees and ship captains of a Depoe Bay fishing charter company were arrested this week after a Lincoln County grand jury indicted them on racketeering and aggravated theft charges and for violating Oregon wildlife laws.



Lt. Bill Fugate, a spokesman for the Oregon State Police, said Julie Harmon, 52, and Tim Harmon, 67, of Lake Oswego, owners of Tradewinds Charters, were booked into the Lincoln County Jail this week after the grand jury returned a secret indictment on July 2.

The couple, along with their daughters, Eva Harmon, 24, Noelie Achen, 30, and employee Justin Couch, 30, of Depoe Bay, were all indicted on two counts of racketeering, four counts of first-degree theft, two counts of aggravated theft, four counts of conspiracy to commit first degree theft, two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated theft, failure to remit moneys from license sales, conspiracy of failure to remit moneys from license sales, assisting another to violate Oregon wildlife laws and conspiracy in assisting another to violate Oregon wildlife laws.

According to the indictment, the alleged crimes took place from March 2012 through March 2015. Court documents name Julie Harmon as the defendant and all the others arrested as co-defendants.

Fugate said police executed a search warrant at the company's headquarters in Depoe Bay in March.

"We have never done anything intentionally wrong,'' Tim Harmon said. "We have not changed or done anything differently than we have for 80 years."

Harmon, who is retired, said he and the company workers have cooperated "100 percent" with the investigation."It's a misunderstanding," he added.

The defendants are alleged to have charged fishing charter customers for daily fishing licenses but never purchasing the licenses from the Oregon Dept. of Fish & Wildlife and never giving customers an actual license.



Court documents show that at least $70,000 was collected from customers for licenses that were never purchased from the state.



Five additional employees -- Bradley Haight, 48; Craig Calkins, 45; Daniel Zimmerman, 60; Richard Newton, 67, all of Depoe Bay; and Roman Smolcic, 31, of Lincoln County, were indicted on 2 counts of racketeering, conspiracy in assisting another to violate Oregon wildlife laws, and multiple counts of assisting another to violate Oregon wildlife laws.

Smolcic, Newton, Zimmerman, Couch, Haight and Calkins are all listed as captains of the charter company's ten vessels, according to the company's website.

The website also says the company has been in business in Depoe Bay since 1938, "providing "Top Deck" ocean charters for whale watching, sportfishing, bird watching, and Ecology Tours."

The defendants were all booked into the Lincoln County Jail on Wednesday and Thursday and later released on their own recognizance, Tim Harmon said.

An early resolution conference is scheduled for Aug. 17 before Judge Sheryl Bachart in Lincoln County Circuit Court.

An employee who answered the charter company's phone line Friday said the company was open for business.



Anyone any information on this investigation or similar incidents is asked to contact the Oregon State Police at the Newport area command office at 541-265-5354.





-- Stuart Tomlinson

stomlinson@oregonian.com

503-221-8313

@ORweather