Two pro fishermen who admitted to stuffing their catches with lead were sentenced to 10-day jail stints Thursday.
Chase Cominsky and Jacob Runyan, both Pennsylvania residents, appeared in a Cleveland, Ohio, court where they were handed down their jail sentences and also told that they would be forced to forfeit their $130,000 boat, Fox 8 reported. Cominsky and Runyan pleaded guilty in March to a felony charge of cheating and a misdemeanor for unlawful ownership of wild animals.
“I just wanna apologize to everyone,” 36-year-old Cominsky said Thursday. “It’s a bad situation and it’s something I wish I could say it didn’t happen.”
Runyan, 43, said the cheating incident was “the most ignorant decision I’ve ever made in my life” in his apology to the court.
Last fall, Chase Cominsky and Jake Runyan were declared winners at the weigh-in at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship (LEWT) in Cleveland. But their opponents immediately discovered something extra fishy about the supposed winning catches. Video of the incident showed someone cutting open the fish and pulling out what appeared to be lead weights and the filets of another fish that the men had stuffed down the throats of their catches to make them heavier.
“You got thousands of f***ing dollars you stole from everyone!” someone on video accuses the pro fishermen after the discovery.
Cominsky and Runyan were set to win more than $28,000 in various prize pools when they were caught cheating.
After serving 10 days in jail, the cheating fishermen will spend a year and a half on probation and pay a $2,500 fine each. Cominsky and Runyan have the option of cutting their fines in half if they donate to a nonprofit organization that promotes fishing with children. Both Cominsky and Runyan’s fishing licenses will be suspended for three years.
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The pair had been accused of cheating in previous tournaments, and according to court documents, were investigated in the spring of 2022 for cheating in a separate walleye tournament, but there was not enough evidence to press them with charges. In 2021, Cominsky and Runyan reeled in the top catch for the Lake Erie Fall Brawl, which would have won them $100,000, but they were disqualified.
“They’re forever gonna be branded with the labels of cheaters and thieves,” said Assistant County Prosecutor Andrew Rogalski. “After today, they’ll be convicted felons. And nobody should feel bad for them, because they deserve this and they earned this.”