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Coast Guardsman's trial under way
He is accused of counseling a Newport News fishing company official about helping illegal immigrants.
By Peter Dujardin

247-4749

February 21, 2008

NORFOLK

The vice president of a Newport News fishing company turned on her former lover — a Coast Guard petty officer — to "save her own neck" after being accused of hiring illegal immigrants, an assistant federal public defender said at a jury trial Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

Petty officer first class Morris Wade Hughes, 50, of Chesapeake, a 28-year Coast Guard veteran, is charged with "conspiracy to defraud the United States" — by, among other things, counseling Yvonne Michelle Peabody, the vice president of Peabody LLC, on how to help her illegal immigrant workers elude capture.

Peabody Corp., which operates scallop boats at Newport News Seafood Industrial Park at the southeastern end of Jefferson Avenue, was accused of hiring 126 illegal immigrants between 2003 and 2007. Peabody and her father, William F. Peabody, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy as part of a plea agreement. They will be sentenced in March, and face possible jail time and up to $6.9 million in fines and forfeitures.

Yvonne Michelle Peabody — whose three years of e-mails with Hughes were confiscated by the FBI — is a key witness in the case against Hughes. But federal public defender Arenda Allen called Peabody "a scorned woman," and said she was trying to cut her losses.

"The reason he's here is because she's trying to stay out of jail," Allen said.

Hughes, an instructor of vessel operating skills at the Coast Guard training center in Yorktown, is a chief petty officer .

He is accused of telling Peabody to "tell your boys (her illegal immigrant workers) not to take IDs" on the boats, saying it would be difficult to determine the status of the crew because Americans weren't required to have IDs.

Hughes also is charged with providing Peabody with confidential information about fisheries enforcement. That came after a Peabody catch worth more than $75,000 was seized, and Peabody had asked him for information about how much other firms had to pay.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph E. DePadilla said confiscated e-mails prove Hughes knew what he was doing was wrong, saying at one point, "Don't tell anyone where you got this."

Before FBI agents confronted him with actual e-mails, DePadilla said, Hughes at first denied them. He later accused Peabody of being "naive" for keeping them, DePadilla said.

Allen said Hughes is charged with giving Peabody information that was already available to her in other ways, and was guilty only of "a lapse in judgment."

Peabody and Hughes first met at a Mid-Atlantic Fisheries Council conference he attended regularly, DePadilla said. During the trial, Hughes appeared shaken when lawyers spoke of his affair, at one point glancing at his wife sitting in the front row. Hughes and his wife walked out hand in hand during a recess in the case, which resumes today.



At a glance

A petty officer for the Coast Guard — one of the key federal agencies entrusted with securing U.S. borders — is accused of counseling a vice president of a Newport News fishing company, Peabody Corp., about hiring illegal immigrant workers. He is also accused of giving her sensitive government information about fisheries violations. A jury trial began Wednesday and is expected to continue today.



Copyright © 2008, Newport News, Va., Daily Press

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