A Brinnon man was sentenced March 10 in Jefferson County District Court for a May 2024 incident involving poaching Hood Canal spot shrimp on opening day of shrimp season.

The defendant, Curtis Grout, was found guilty of possession of twice the daily limit of shellfish in violation of state law.

“Poaching undermines the entire system we have to prevent over-exploitation of natural resources,” said Jefferson County Deputy Prosecutor Chris Ashcraft. “It disrupts ecosystems, threatens sustainability, and robs future generations of food and recreation. The law’s there for a reason, and doubling down on this violation is doubly indefensible.”

After a two-day trial in Jefferson County District Court, and approximately 30 minutes of deliberation, the jury found Grout guilty as charged. On March 10, the parties appeared in court for sentencing. The State argued Grout formerly had a commercial license. He had been subject to multiple license violations, a pending felony charges for trafficking in wildlife, and therefore he knew the shrimping rules and intentionally broke them.

The state requested 30 days in jail with 334 days suspended for 24 months because of that history. Defense counsel argued that his client had no prior fishing convictions, it had all been his employees committing the violations, and therefore the 30-day sentence was inappropriate for a first-time offender.

District Court Judge Mindy Walker sentenced Grout to 30 days of electronic home monitoring, but stayed the home monitoring sentence pending appeal. The rest of the sentence went into effect immediately.

According to Ashcraft, May 17, 2024 was opening day for shrimp season and state Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) officers were out in full force.

At that same time, Lowell Griffin and Steven Smith, were attending a party on the beach at Grout’s property with about 20 other people. Witnesses reported that early in the day, Grout and two friends pulled three shrimp pots out of the water, cheered, then headed towards shore without conducting a count of their catch. The witnesses thought the catch was so successful that they moved their boat to where Grout had been shrimping.

Later that day, near the close of shrimping, Grout was out again but this time undercover DFW officers were present as well. The two officers observed Smith, Lowell, and Grout pull three pots out of the water. The pots contained more shrimp than the three daily limits the men were allowed to take. The three men cheered over the size of their catch, then headed towards the shore without conducting a count.

The officers radioed to a marked DFW patrol boat and told them to stop Grout’s boat. As they pulled alongside Grout’s speeding boat, the DFW officers observed Grout throwing shrimp overboard while Griffin was driving the boat. The DFW officers ordered Grout to stop throwing shrimp and ordered Griffin to stop the boat. Griffin eventually stopped approximately 100 yards from the shore.

With the boats side by side, the DFW officers conducted an inspection of licenses, safety gear, and catch. Curtis and Lowell provided shrimp licenses, but Smith had left his on shore.

A DFW wildlife Sgt. Chris Zuchlewski testified that the daily limit of shrimp is 80 per license, which is approximately two, one-gallon Ziploc bags. Inside the boat, Zuchlweski reported seeing a large basket that was almost full of shrimp and far exceeded the daily limit for the three men. Zuchlewski asked Grout to forfeit the basket, but Grout refused. Zuchlewski then reached into Grout’s boat and grabbed the basket so that the catch could be counted.