Former North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill, whose trial for illegal activities associated with the state’s efforts to establish a passenger ferry service across the shallow Currituck Sound began yesterday, claimed that his subordinates conducted the illegal activities without his knowledge.
Gaskill, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on Jan. 18, has pleaded not guilty to the charges of conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbor Act, actual violations of both acts, and with making material false statements about those activities.
The federal indictment alleges that Gaskill and others agreed in early 2004 to force Ferry Division workboats into the Corolla basin in order to create a deeper channel, knowing that no permits had been obtained for such an activity. The indictment then alleges that Gaskill and others actually carried out that operation to “prop wash” the channel.
The indictment further alleges that on June 25, 2004 Gaskill signed a written false statement claiming the creation of the channel was unintentional and submitted that statement to the United States Army Corps of Engineers.
If convicted of all charges, Gaskill could receive a maximum sentence of 14 years. Four other Ferry Division Employees, Billy R. Moore, Herbert F. O’Neal, Douglas A. Bateman, and Stephen G. Smith have pleaded guilty to charges in connection with the dredging incident. They have not been sentenced. As part of their plea agreement they agreed to cooperate with the federal government in the prosecution of other parties.
In her opening statement Assistant U. S. Attorney Banu Rangarajan told jurors that Ferry Division employees deliberately conducted the illegal dredging because their boss Gaskill wanted it done. She also noted that when Gaskill delivered a feasibility study for the project he omitted three important points — that the water was shallow, that wind had a key effect on the water depth, and that the Corps of Engineers had denied dredging permits on two previous occasions.
In his opening statement Gaskill’s attorney Thomas Manning said that the Ferry Division’s dredging superintendent Bill Moore was responsible for the illegal activity. Manning said that Moore thought he was under pressure to establish a channel at Corolla, and told Gaskill that on May 6 and 7, 2004, he and a work crew were going up to the area to mark a channel and work on a dock.
Manning said that it was not until July 12 that Gaskill first learned from Moore that the illegal dredging incident was not an accident. Moore testified that he talked to Gaskill about using boats to prop wash a channel in February 2004, but did not say that Gaskill ordered him to do it or approved of it.
But Moore testified that he first told Gaskill about the illegal activity on May 7, the day the activity was completed.
O’Neal, a maintenance crew supervisor, testified that he knew kicking a channel was wrong but that he was following Moore’s orders. Crewmember Batemen also testified that he knew kicking the channel was wrong but he was following O’Neal’s orders.
At the end of the day, in response to a question from the federal prosecutor, Moore gave a rambling answer and then added a comment that seemed to startle everyone in the courtroom. “Really who ought to be on trial are the people in the environmental sections who did not issue these permits,” he said.
Federal prosecutors will resume questioning Moore today, and then Gaskill’s attorney will have his first opportunity to ask Moore questions. With as many as 30 witnesses on call, the trial is expected to last up to one week.
Previous stories by Carolina Journal revealed the new ferry service faced several obstacles. Plans for the project were initiated soon after the Currituck County Board of Commissioners asked state Sen. Marc Basnight in July 2002 to help establish a ferry service to transport about 40 school children from the Outer Banks to the mainland. Although proponents of the ferry said it was needed for school children, documents suggest that the service was intended to transport resort workers and tourists. Students had been attending Dare County schools on the Outer Banks.
The 2002 budget bill ordered DOT to do a feasibility study. Gaskill conducted a study and submitted it to the General Assembly in May 2003. The proposed route would be about 12 miles across the shallow Currituck Sound from the Currituck community to the Corolla community.
“The proposed ferry service is feasible, assuming the appropriate permits can be obtained,” Gaskill concluded in the study. But he failed to address two previous unsuccessful attempts by Currituck County to obtain a dredging permit for the very shallow Corolla location. State and federal environmental agencies had ruled that the area was a sensitive marine habitat that needed to be protected. At the time of the illegal dredging, neither DOT nor Currituck County had applied for a permit.
The 49-person, 50-foot pontoon boat ordered for service was delivered in August 2004 to the State Shipyard in Manns Harbor. The Virginian-Pilot has reported that the Coast Guard ruled that the boat is not fit to run across the sound and DOT is considering upgrading the boat or selling it.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.