Two men accused of illegally putting weights in their fish at a competitive fishing tournament on Lake Erie pleaded not guilty to cheating and a handful of other charges this week, per the Associated Press.
Jacob Runyan, 42, and Chase Cominsky, 35, did not make comments during their brief appearances in court in Cleveland Wednesday. Their attorneys and assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor James Gutierrez also declined to comment on the case after the pair’s hearing.
Cheating allegations against Runyan and Cominsky first emerged on Sept. 30 when The Herald out of Sharon, Pa. reported that tournament officials at a Lake Erie Walleye Trail Championship event discovered lead weights and fish fillets inside the walleye that the two anglers submitted for the competition. The tournament director became suspicious of the abnormal weight of the walleye and cut open the fish in front of a crowd that grew angry as the situation unfolded.
