A panel of federal judges ruled on Friday that a North Carolina judge should have imposed a harsher sentence on former N.C. Department of Transportation Ferry Division Director Jerry Gaskill for his role in the illegal dredging of the Currituck Sound in 2004.
Gaskill, who received only probation originally, could now spend more than a year in prison. A new sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
In May 2004, Ferry Division workers used workboats to “prop wash” a channel in an essential marine habitat. The dredging was done in an effort to establish passenger ferry service across the Currituck Sound. When news reports about the incident surfaced, Gaskill and other Ferry Division officials said the damage done to the sound was accidental.
After a four-day trial in 2006 a jury convicted Gaskill, of Cedar Island, of making false statements to the Army Corps of Engineers during a lengthy investigation of the illegal dredging activities.
At the March 2007 sentencing hearing, U. S. District Court Judge Terrence W. Boyle, over the federal government’s objection, granted Gaskill a lesser sentence than guidelines stipulated. The range was 15 to 21 months of prison time for his crime, but Boyle sentenced Gaskill to three years’ probation, six months home confinement, 50 hours of community service and a $5000 fine.
The federal government disagreed with Boyle’s deviation from the guidelines and appealed his sentencing decision to the higher court.
The three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit U. S. Court of Appeals in Richmond heard the case in December, and issued its ruling last week that Boyle erred in granting the lesser sentence to Gaskill.
Three other Ferry Division workers who participated in the dredging pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and were given no active prison time. A former supervisor, Billy R. Moore of Grantsboro, pled guilty to criminal charges and received the same sentence as Gaskill. The federal government did not appeal Moore’s sentence, however.
Civil Action
In addition to his criminal activities, Gaskill is also a party to a civil lawsuit filed by the federal government. In February 2008 the government initiated an action to obtain civil penalties and injunctive relief against the N. C. Department of Transportation, Gaskill and Moore for their violations of the Clean Water Act in conjunction with the illegal dredging. The government is requesting civil penalties that total nearly $3 million from the three parties.
The N.C. Department of Justice is representing DOT. Gaskill and Moore have private attorneys. Several motions have been filed in the case but no court hearing has been scheduled.
A failed project
Plans for the ferry 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 schoolchildren from the Outer Banks to the mainland. But previous stories by CJ showed that a scheme to transport resort workers and tourists was a major factor behind the project.
The 2002 state budget bill ordered the Department of Transportation to perform a feasibility study. Gaskill conducted a study and submitted it to the General Assembly in May 2003. The proposed route would have been 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 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 the service was delivered in August 2004 to the State Shipyard in Manns Harbor. The boat remains docked there unused, and there are no efforts to revive the project.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.