Couple rips off lionfish removal program, police say. The first clue — doctored fish photos
Palm Beach County prosecutors agreed Monday to drop grand theft and fraud charges against a dive boat captain and his live-in girlfriend, who are accused of stealing more than $10,000 from a state program aimed at eliminating invasive lionfish, according to court records.
However, they must pay the state restitution and abide by requirements laid out in the agreement, or else the charges will be reinstated, according to the deal.
Lionfish, voracious eaters native to the Pacific and Indian oceans, have devastated marine ecosystems from Georgia to South America for 25 years, ever since people started releasing them into the ocean as unwanted pets.
They have no natural predators in U.S. coastal waters, and state and federal wildlife officials want them gone. Fortunately, they are both sought-after as a tasty food fish, and easily caught by scuba divers.
The program the couple is accused of ripping off, which is run by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, pays boat captains $50 per client, per trip, for every eight lionfish caught.
John Clay Dickinson, 57, of Lake Park, just south of Palm Beach Gardens, signed up his dive boat for the program in 2018.
In total, he invoiced the FWC $20,193.50 for 51 trips he said he made between March 20, 2018, and Jan. 14, 2019, according to his arrest report. The FWC paid him $10,696.50 before he and his girlfriend, Rachel Janea McGinnis, 42, were arrested in October.
The problem is, according to FWC investigators, he and McGinnis doctored photos, which are required to be attached to the invoices, purporting to show mounds of lionfish his diving customers caught.
“Lionfish were added to some pictures,” FWC Maj. Michael Meaney said in his Oct. 24, 2019, affidavit. “This is evidenced by lionfish ‘floating’ above the vessel’s deckmat, lionfish missing parts, discolored lionfish, lionfish lying on top of shadows, and/or transparent lionfish.”
And, Dickinson listed clients on his invoices who police say do not exist, according to the complaint.
“At least one client was digitally added to a picture after the fact because their shirt is transparent and they are missing their legs,” Meaney wrote. “Another client was added to one or more pictures because they are shown in the same position on the vessel’s stern in pictures purportedly taken on different dates.”
Video tapes submitted as evidence in the case show Dickinson instructing deck hands to change clothes and positions on the boat to make it look like fish were caught on different days.
In transcripts of a video shot Aug. 24, 2018, Dickinson is seen with a stills camera and speaking with deckhands. One of them asks, “Is that picture for a different day?” To which Dickinson replies, “Yep,” according to the transcripts.
A deckhand is then heard asking Dickinson if he wants him to move fish around the boat, and Dickinson says, “Yeah, he’s catching on,” the transcripts show.
FWC investigators also subpoenaed movement logs from the Jupiter Pointe Club and Marina, where Dickinson’s boat, Shark Tales, was kept. Meaney stated that based on those records, the vessel was “likely not moved from dry storage on 40 of the 58 dates in which Dickinson invoiced FWC for trips.”
Nevertheless, the Palm Beach State Attorney’s Office agreed this week to defer prosecution for a year and a half on fraud and grand theft charges if Dickinson and McGinnis pay back the more than $10,000 investigators say they stole from the FWC.
They also must abide by a number of other requirements, including submitting to random drug tests and not possessing any weapons, with the exception of spearguns, dive knives or pole spears if that equipment is used for diving purposes.
Jonathan Wasserman, Dickinson’s attorney, declined to comment on the deal Wednesday.
“I’m not going to talk about the facts of the case,” he said.
Jason Weiss, McGinnis’ attorney, did not return a phone call seeking comment. The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the case.
