The United States Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California announced that a Contra Costa County development company will pay $1 million in criminal fines and restitution for intentionally destroying two ponds that contained a breeding population of a threatened frog species.
West Coast Homebuilders, Inc., based in Concord, pleaded guilty to a criminal violation of the Endangered Species Act and admitted that persons acting on the companys behalf drained two ponds that provided habitat for the California Red-legged frog. The frog is a threatened species under federal law.
Albert D. Seeno, Jr., the companys president, also agreed to preserve a 640-acre parcel of rolling Contra Costa countryside known as Morgan Territory Ranch that provides habitat for the frog. The promise, made in a conservation easement conservation easement
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a government agency or qualified conservation organization that restricts the type and amount of development that may take place on a property in the future. Conservation easements aim to protect habitat for birds, fish and other wildlife by limiting residential, industrial or commercial development. Contracts may prohibit alteration of the natural topography, conversion of native grassland to cropland, drainage of wetland and establishment of game farms. Easement land remains in private ownership.
Learn more about conservation easement , also prohibits any future owners from developing the property. Mr. Seeno reserved the right to build two houses on two five-acre sites on the property.
The company pleaded guilty July 19. United States Magistrate Judge Wayne D. Brazil, accepting a plea agreement between West Coast Homebuilders and the United States Attorneys Office, sentenced the company to pay a $300,000 criminal fine, a $300,000 civil penalty, $300,000 in restitution, $75,000 to the California Department of Fish and Game Preservation Fund and $25,000 to the Alameda County "Hazardous Materials Program training and resources trust account."
When a corporation pleads guilty to a criminal offense, it admits that persons acting for the corporation violated criminal law. West Coast Homebuilders, Inc., based in Concord, California, finances and develops residential and commercial real estate projects.
In pleading guilty, West Coast admitted that during the development of the San Marco Subdivision Housing Development, a 639-acre residential and commercial real estate project near Pittsburg, California, persons acting on its behalf had intentionally destroyed two ponds that contained a breeding population of the frogs in order to proceed with the housing development.
In March, 2001, a consultant hired by West Coast Homebuilders told West Coast executives that he found a breeding population of Red-legged frogs around two ponds at the development site. That should have caused West Coast to suspend any work in the area and to consult with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to consider alternatives for protecting the frogs. But Mr. Seeno instead directed an agent of West Coast to drain both of the ponds after he learned that they contained Red-legged frogs.
Later that spring, a California Department of Fish and Game warden visited the site, saw that the ponds were dry, and later found a dead frog near the dry ponds. Mr. Seeno later admitted that he ordered the ponds drained.
The prosecution was the result of an investigation by the California Department of Fish and Game and the FBI.. Maureen Bessette and Mark Parrent are the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who prosecuted the case with the assistance of Cynthia Meinke.
A copy of this press release and related court documents may be found on the U.S. Attorneys Offices website at Back to Pacific Region News Catalog
