Category Archives: Notable Cases

On April 21, 2023, the Ventura County District Attorney and Silver Bay Seafoods entered a stipulated Final Judgment resolving a civil prosecution relating to the company’s 2021 and 2022 releases of stick water. Stick water is squid ink wastewater which is lethal to fish and marine life due to its high concentration of ammonia. Under the terms of the settlement, Silver Bay Seafoods agreed to pay $36,815, which included $12,500 in penalties to the Ventura County Fish and Wildlife Propagation Fund, $12,500 in penalties to the CDFW Fish and Game Preservation Fund, and $5,000 in civil penalties and $6,815 in investigative costs to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

An in-depth investigation by the California Department of Fish & Wildlife identified a large poaching and wildlife trafficking organization referred to as the “E-Bike crew.” The “E Bike crew” conspired with one another and Lizette’s Market to fraudulently reprint hunting licenses and tags for the purpose of unlawfully poaching wildlife. All seven defendants pled guilty to two or more felonies ranging between 180 and 220 days in jail, as well as a two-year probationary period.

The Ventura County District Attorney and the Santa Cruz County District Attorney were lead counsel in a civil prosecution of AT&T which led to a $5.9 million settlement for environmental violations. AT&T failed to report the location of numerous hazardous materials (batteries) with the California Environmental Reporting System (CERS) at more than 3,000 sites across the state of California.  AT&T self-reported the apparent oversight and cooperated with the statewide investigation. Ventura and Santa Cruz Counties each received more than $700,000 as a result of this settlement and the 56 other California counties and impacted regulatory agencies split the remainder of the $5.9 million.

On March 11, 2019, Simi Valley-based Simi Auto Spa & Speed Wash illegally disposed of hazardous waste into an on-site storm drain that directly connects to the Arroyo Simi waterway which turned the waterway bright green. The hazardous waste, auto detailing wax, contained the chemical sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate, which is acutely toxic to aquatic life. In a stipulated Final Judgment, Sam’s KH Corp. agreed to pay $65,000 in civil penalties, $37,405 in cost reimbursement to multiple responding state and county agencies, and an injunction prohibiting the business from unlawfully disposing of chemicals into the waterway.

A multi-agency investigation revealed that Fruit Growers Supply sold restricted pesticides to non-permitted users numerous times in 2019 and 2020. These pesticides included Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides (SGARs) which have been identified in more than 90 percent of tested deceased mountain lions, 88 percent of tested deceased bobcats, 85 percent of tested deceased protected Pacific fishers, and 70 percent of tested deceased northern spotted owls. In a stipulated Final Judgment, Fruit Growers Supply agreed to pay $625,000 in civil penalties, restitution, and supplemental environmental projects.