Back in late August,
White Marlin Open (WMO) officials announced that the winner, Phillip Heasley, could be disqualified due to a potential rules violation. Tournament officials said in court documents that Heasley was administered two polygraph exams by two different examiners and failed them both. Up for debate is whether Heasley passed the sea buoy before 4 a.m. and whether he had helping reeling in his winning 76.5-pound white marlin.
In the latest news, Heasley is seeking to have the case tossed out of federal court and have tournament officials pay him his $2.8 million prize.
According to The Dispatch:
Heasley’s attorneys filed a systematic, paragraph-by-paragraph formal answer to the complaint denying any wrongdoing by the winning white marlin angler, the captain or the crew on the Kallianassa.
“Heasley denies that he was deceptive, employed ‘countermeasures’ or violated the rules of the WMO,” the answer filed this week reads. “Heasley denies that Captain Morris was deceptive or violated the rules of the tournament. The allegations are hereby denied to the extent they state or suggest that Heasley was deceptive, employed so-called countermeasures, or that he or other aboard the Kallianassa violated the rules of the tournament.
A closer review of the catch report caused tournament officials to realize that the time written down for when the winning white marlin was caught appeared to have been altered. Specifically, it appeared that although the time written down was initially ‘8:15 a.m.’, it had been subsequently altered to read ‘9:05’ before it was submitted to tournament officials. However, in his formal answer filed this week, Heasley asserts the apparent alteration was a clerical error and not an intentional attempt to circumvent the tournament rules.
If a federal judge confirms Heasley and the Kallianassa should be disqualified, the biggest winners stand to be the other 13 named “defendants” in the case, or the winners of several other categories to whom the first-place white marlin money would be distributed. However, Heasley contends in the formal answer filed this week he has never been formally disqualified from the 2016 WMO."
To read the full article from The Dispatch, click to
mdcoastdispatch.com. And stay tuned for updates as the court case is expected to take some time to be resolved.