Department of Justice
Assistant United State Attorney
- District of Alaska

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 11, 2007

UTAH MAN SENTENCED IN FEDERAL COURT TO JAIL AND FINED $10,000 FOR SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Anchorage, AK – United States Attorney Nelson P. Cohen announced today, April 11, 2007, that Enrique Reynaldo Deras, a resident of St. George, Utah, has been sentenced in federal court in Anchorage to one year of probation, with conditions to serve 60 days imprisonment and pay a fine of $10,000 for his conviction of sexual harassment. The Court also ordered him to pay victim restitution totaling up to $8,430, complete sexual harassment training approved by the probation service, and pay any associated costs for that counseling.

Magistrate Judge John D. Roberts imposed the sentence on Deras, a 31-year-old Utah resident who worked in Alaska 's fisheries.

According to information presented to the court by Assistant United States Attorney Audrey J. Renschen, Deras was found guilty of sexual harassment of an observer aboard a fishing vessel that occurred on February 1, 2007, in the Bering Sea east of Saint George Island, Alaska.

Prior to imposing sentence, Judge Roberts stated that sexual harassment can impact a person physically, emotionally, economically and socially; it can also affect one's career and one's work performance. Judge Roberts talked about the importance of human rights, and reminded Deras that women are not property, that Deras must respect them as individuals, and that Deras must recognize that “what you do affects other people,” especially in the confined quarters of a fishing vessel.

According to NOAA Fisheries Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Mike Adams, “The NOAA Fisheries-certified groundfish observers play a vital role in providing real time data to NOAA Fisheries for effective conservation and management of Alaska's federal fishery resources. The ability of observers to collect fisheries data is paramount to managing the fisheries and the regulations are designed to protect observers from any form of harassment that could undermine their ability to collect that information. The regulations acknowledge that because of the closed-quarters situations in which they live and work, observers are uniquely vulnerable.”

Mr. Cohen stated, “Although these cases are relatively rare, when this office is presented with a provable case, it will be aggressively pursued.”

Mr. Cohen commended the NOAA Fisheries agents for the investigation leading to the successful prosecution of Deras.