San Diego man sentenced for seal ruckus
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A 54-year-old San Diego man was sentenced today to six months of house arrest and a year’s worth of mental health counseling and substance-abuse testing after pleading guilty to threatening a seal lover at the Children’s Pool in La Jolla.
Kent Douglas Trego had already served nearly five months in jail after his arrest.
He admitted that he used the Internet to send messages threatening violence toward a volunteer from the Animal Protection and Rescue League who was videotaping two divers allegedly harassing seals in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
Under a deal approved by U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez, Trego must stay away from the Children’s Pool, above, where the dispute over seals has raged for years, and cannot use a computer unless it is monitored by his probation officer.
In e-mails sent in December and January, Trego allegedly said that a motorcycle gang would take revenge on the witness ‘very harshly.’
-- Tony Perry