$2.8M Prize For N.J. Tuna Fishermen After Tournament Settlement

Damien Romeo admits it's the kind of story that no one would believe, if it weren't for the witnesses and the media reports.

"People are telling me I should write a book," Romeo said Friday, as he looked back over the last 11 months of an odyssey that he never expected when he and friends Rich Kostzyu and Brian Suschke pulled away from the dock aboard Romeo's boat Hubris at the White Marlin Open last August.

"I had a heart attack, we hit a log and busted our rudder, then we lost power and had to be towed in and had to drive the tuna to the scales," Romeo said, rattling off the list of mishaps that the three overcame to have their 236.5-pound bigeye hoisted on the scale in Ocean City, Maryland, last year.

But a disqualified angler — and the nearly yearlong court battle that ensued? "It's definitely crazy," Romeo said.

Now, however, Romeo, Kostzyu and Suschke can relax a little bit and really savor the victory, now that a finalized agreement among the prize winners and the White Marlin Open has rewarded them with an additional $2.025 million for the tuna Kostzyu reeled in. That combined with the $767,091 they had won outright brings their final winnings in the 2016 tournament to $2.8 million, the biggest tournament payout for a tuna ever and the second-largest fishing tournament payout (a tournament in Cabo San Lucas paid out nearly $4 million for the winning fish in 2015).

"We're excited," Romeo said. "We're glad it's over. It'll be nice to not have to worry about it anymore."

>> READ MORE: 236-Pound Tuna Wins $767K For Fishermen

The payout was the result of a judge's ruling last month upholding the decision by the White Marlin Open board of directors to disqualify Philip Heasley of the boat Kallianassa out of Naples, Florida. Heasley, the boat's owner, and his crew caught a 76.5-pound white marlin, the only qualifying white marlin caught in the tournament. Heasley and his crew stood to win $2.8 million, but within a matter of days, word got out that Heasley and his captain had failed the polygraph tests that are required of top money winners at the tournament.

Shortly after the rumors started, the tournament made it official, announcing the disqualification. The reason: Indications that the boat had caught the fish before the official start of fishing hours for the tournament. Tournament officials, in announcing the disqualification, said not only were there multiple failed polygraph results among Heasley and his crew, the catch report — the record tournament participants must submit at the end of each day's fishing — showed signs of being altered.

Tournament officials sought the intercession of a judge in the issue, with Heasley on one side and the tournament and all the others who stood to win additional money — including Romeo, Kostzyu and Suschke — on the other.

>> READ MORE: $3 Million Sushi? Failed Polygraph May Increase Prize For Winning Tuna

"He (Heasley) threw an incredible amount of money at it to fight it," Romeo said. But he said he never doubted the outcome would favor the tournament and him and his friends.

"They failed so many polygraphs," he said. "The tournament disqualified them for a reason. We were always confident that the judge would see it that way."

According to a report in the Maryland Coast Dispatch, the evidence presented to U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett included not only the findings of deception on the post-tournament polygraph exams, but detailed analysis of the vessel’s computer and GPS equipment that showed the Kallianassa was fishing before 8:30 a.m. last Aug. 9 when the winning white marlin was caught.

Tournament rules stipulate that fishing cannot begin before 8:30 a.m. The catch report showed signs of the time of the white marlin catch being altered, from an initial writing of 8:15 a.m. to 9:05 a.m. The failed polygraph tests had triggered further investigation that led to the discovery of the time alteration, according to tournament officials.

>> READ MORE: N.J. Fishing Crew May Win $2.3M After Judge Disqualifies Marlin Angler

"You sign the contract" and agree to live by the tournament's rules when you enter, Romeo said.

The initial talk was that Romeo, Kostzyu and Suschke would receive an additional $2.3 million, but the teams that all received a chunk of the $2.8 million withheld from Heasley agreed to pay a share of the legal fees the White Marlin Open spent fighting the battle. That amounts to $287,000 from Romeo and friends.

"We agreed to pay the lion's share but we're winning the lion's share," Romeo said.

It's a nice bonus for Romeo, a Lacey Township resident who owns a construction company. "It's not life-changing for me. But it's life-changing money for Rich and Brian, and I'm super stoked for them," he said.

Kostzyu is a Trenton firefighter who lives in Hamilton; Suschke is a police sergeant who lives in Chesterfield.

"When we won the $767,000 we were ecstatic," Romeo said. "But when we got the call that we could be winning $2 million more, it was mind-blowing."

Despite all the wrangling and the stress and the craziness of the last 11 months, Romeo said the battle over the prize money hasn't dulled the trio's love of fishing in tournaments.

"We have a tournament next week," he said, the Ocean City Tuna Tournament. "Then we're fishing in the Huk Big Fish Classic (a blue marlin tournament in North Carolina) and the White Marlin Open after that."

"We're not skipping any of them," he said. And they will be hoping to win more prize money when they set out this year.

"Every single time we leave the dock in a fishing tournament we truly believe we're going to go out and catch the winning fish," Romeo said. "If you don't, you shouldn't be doing it."

Photo via White Marlin Open, used with permission