The owner of Hurricane Ron’s restaurant in downtown Astoria pleaded guilty Friday in Clatsop County Circuit Court to violating state record-keeping requirements for fish and shellfish.

Ronald Neva, 71, pleaded guilty to three separate charges for failure to submit a fish receiving ticket, and one charge for a general commercial fishing violation. Neva also pleaded guilty to the same charges on behalf of his company, Anna-Neva LLC, doing business as Northwest Wild Products.

In the case against Neva, Judge Beau Peterson granted a suspended sentence. If Neva successfully completes an 18-month probation period, the charges will be dismissed. In the case against the company, Peterson imposed an initial $2,500 fine for one of the charges. Fines of $2,500 for the other three charges will be waived if the company completes a similar 18-month probation period. The terms of probation include parameters like not breaking any laws and paying all court-ordered fines, fees or restitution.

Prosecutor Alexander Thomas said the general commercial fishing crime was tied to temperature protocols for storing clams. The fish-ticket charges were tied to keeping records of purchases.

A fish-receiving ticket is a form used by canneries and fish wholesalers to document the purchase of fish or shellfish. According to the charges, Neva failed to submit fish tickets on March 17, 2022, and March 21, 2022. As the registered owner of the company, Thomas said, Neva is ultimately responsible for making sure the tickets are submitted.

“When I went through the evidence, I didn’t necessarily see evidence of mal intent, but I certainly saw evidence of criminal negligence, sloppiness, to a degree that led to criminal charges,” Thomas said in court. “And I think that hopefully Mr. Neva is on notice that, you know, that level of sloppiness is going to draw the state’s eye and is going to continue to draw criminal charges for what may, on its face, appear to just be paperwork issues.”

Thomas added he believes the Oregon State Police, the entity that enforces Oregon’s fishing laws, had provided Neva sufficient resources and training for submitting the tickets in an accurate and timely manner. Neva, however, expressed frustration over the volume of charges he had received, the majority of which were dismissed by Peterson.

Originally, Neva faced 27 Class A misdemeanors, according to the electronic court records, 18 of which were failure to keep records of fish received or allowing record inspection.

“I think Mr. Neva would have a different view of that, and he feels targeted, and I understand why that is,” said Jamie Kilberg, Neva’s attorney, “and I think he has a significant concern that OSP actually wanted his license or his company’s license revoked entirely.”

Both parties and the court agreed that the charges should not result in the revocation of Anna-Neva, LLC’s wholesaler license. A license revocation decision could still be made independently by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission.

“I’ve done a large number of the fish-receiving ticket cases, so I understand the importance of them,” Peterson said. “I also understand how complex the system is and what those tickets look like. So … there’s always reasons on both sides.”