DAILY JOURNAL (Vineland, New Jersey) 06 November 10 Turtle trapper hopes to clear his name (Joseph P. Smith)
Buena Vista: Strange circumstances have ensnared Chris Giordano in a court case he didn't seek, a loss of business income his family needs and name-calling that's ticking him off.
Giordano's sideline profession as a licensed, part-time turtle trapper has served him well. But things started going wrong this summer when attempts to help state wildlife officials ensnare fishermen damaging his traps ended with charges for a local woman who claims she was trying to save turtles from drowning.
Now, Giordano says he finds himself defending his work capturing snapping turtles.
The 36-year-old Richland resident said earlier this summer he helped New Jersey wildlife law enforcement officers set a trap for a fisherman who wrecked 10 of his traps in a Millville pond several weeks earlier.
The sting set for Aug. 29 worked -- kind of.
It reportedly caught two people cutting and emptying his traps, which were set afloat in Clarks Pond in Fairfield. The problem is neither person was the suspect from the Millville incident.
One defendant entered a guilty plea to a lesser charge and was fined.
The other defendant, Clarks Pond resident Audra Capps, admits cutting traps. But she claims Giordano's traps were not catching snappers, but painted turtles -- and they were drowning them.
He vehemently denies the claim and is backed by a statement from the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection's Division of Fish and Wildlife that its officers saw no dead turtles in the traps.
Capps is fighting her charges and the case will be heard in Fairfield Municipal Court.
Giordano hopes the hearing goes toward clearing his name, but no date is set.
Whoever did wreck Giordano's traps in Millville still is out there.
The DEP turned down a request from The Daily Journal to interview someone from Fish and Wildlife about the case as "inappropriate." Asked whether Clarks Pond had been staked out, spokesman Larry Hajna confirmed there was an investigation.
Giordano has lost about two months of trapping revenue because of the ruined traps. The season ended Oct. 30.
"There are animal lovers all over the world and I'm one," Giordano said. "But I also hunt and fish, and that's how I feed my family."
At his house this week, Giordano displayed his traps and how they are used. The traps are 21 inches across, 36 inches long -- but sometime another foot longer -- and made of wire mesh.
Two or three "noodles" -- flotation devices used in backyard pools -- provide the lift to keep the trap partly above water. Turtles can get by underwater for a long time, but still need to breathe.
"There are a few guys in the area that make and sell them," Giordano said. "I prefer to make my own. It's the standard design turtle trap for the state. It's my sixth year. I've never had any turtle, snapper or otherwise, die."
Giordano, 36, and partner Duane Smith recently netted what may be a record-setting snapping turtle.
Giordano said it's common for other turtles to go into a snapper turtle trap, although they generally won't if a snapper already is inside. Even other snappers will steer clear of a big snapper in a cage.
Unlike other game, turtles need to be caught alive in order to be sold as food. Capps' allegation that Girodano's traps were drowning turtles particularly irritates him.
"The traps have enough floatation to keep up a 185-pound man," Giordano said. "A dead turtle to me is useless. One swimming pool noodle will keep up a grown man. I have two of them in the traps. I've had 185 pounds of snapper turtle."
In early August, Giordano and Smith laid 10 traps in Menantico Ponds in Millville and left. They returned to find the mesh on the traps cut.
Giordano said a bass fisherman told them he had seen another fisherman at the traps, but didn't realize what was happening.
"There was a whole club fishing that day," Giordano said.
Giordano won't name the fishing club, saying "one jerk" shouldn't ruin a club's name. But the same club had booked Clarks Pond on Aug. 29 for a tournament.
Giordano said state game officers set up a sting operation there and waited in nearby woods with video cameras.
What no one foresaw was Capps spotting the traps and intervening. Giordano was not there for the moment, but he said officers told him they came out of concealment after she had cut three of his traps.
"Prior to her being videotaped, one of the fishermen in particular was very interested in the traps," Giordano said. "He was pulling right up on them, but ended up not doing anything to them."
Giordano said the officers left after telling Capps there would be charges filed. "A bass fisherman said she went back out after that with someone else and cut seven traps," Giordano said.
"When the game wardens arrived, she could not produce one single picture of a dead turtle," Giordano said. "She could not produce one single picture of a trap under water. There were no dead turtles. This whole thing was set up under the supervision of Fish and Game."
Giordano said three of his traps from that day are missing.
Bridgeton attorney Kevin McCann is defending Capps. He disputes Giordano's contention that his traps float properly.
"But the rest of the stuff I don't know anything about," McCann said. "The pictures show them below the water."
Not so, said Giordano. The pictures show a few inches of the traps above the water, he said.
Turtle trapper hopes to clear his name

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