The prosecutor in the infamous walleye tournament cheating scandal said all the right things Monday in the Cuyahoga County (Ohio) Court of Common Pleas.

“This plea is the first step in teaching these crooks two basic life lessons: Thou shalt not steal, and crime doesn’t pay,” Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley said after two fishermen appeared in court.

The punishment really doesn’t fit the crime. Jacob Runyan of Ashtabula, Ohio, and Jacob Cominsky of Hermitage, Pennsylvania, each entered guilty pleas to two of four charges just moments before jury selection Monday for their trial in Cleveland. They admitted guilt to one count of cheating (felony of the fifth degree) and one count of unlawful ownership of wild animals (misdemeanor of the fourth degree).

Runyan and Cominsky will be sentenced at a hearing May 11.

Fifth-degree felonies are punishable by up to 12 months in prison and up to $2,500 in fines, according to officials. Fourth-degree misdemeanors are punishable by up to 30 days in jail and fines up to $250.

The fishermen also were charged with fifth-degree felony counts of attempted grand theft and possessing criminal tools. Those charges were dismissed Monday.

The defendants could have faced up to one year in prison. However, prosecutors agreed to recommend six months probation and later ask for expungement of their convictions if they complete their probation, according to Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor James Gallagher.

That amounts to a slap on the wrist. Where is the punishment?

Also, as part of their plea deals, they were ordered by the court to forfeit a fishing boat, boat trailer, plus other fishing equipment and to have their fishing licenses suspended for three years.

It all started — for the record as they were suspected of cheating in previous tournaments, according to many reports — at the weigh-in for a Lake Erie Walleye Trail Tournament on Sept. 30, 2022, out of Gordon Park on the edge of Lake Erie in Cleveland Harbor. Walleye fishermen from several states competed in the tournament.

Runyan and Cominsky needed to beat 16.89 pounds to claim the walleye tournament circuit’s Team of the Year honors worth a total prize of $28,760. Their five-fish limit weighed 33.91 pounds, twice as heavy as that limit brought in by the second-place team of Steve Tysko and Chris French.

Jason Fischer, tournament director and a veteran walleye fisherman, got a close look at the fish he put on the scale. One 4- to 5-pound class walleye weighed 7.90 pounds.

Fischer grew suspicious. He asked those two fishermen to keep their fish till after the weigh-in, then cut open the belly of each walleye to reveal 10 lead weights (eight weighing 12 ounces and two weighing 8 ounces), along with several walleye filets.

After the first weight fell out, the tournament director shouted, “We’ve got weights in fish!” Fishermen and onlookers gathered immediately and shouted expletives and insults at Runyan, who stood there as if in a trance, after Cominsky ran and locked himself in his pickup truck.

They were disqualified and asked to leave the site.

The two fishermen were indicted in October 2022.

Cuyahoga County Assistant Prosecutor James Gutierrez said at the time, “You have individuals who committed a fraud trying to obtain money. That’s a fraud in any context whether it’s a fishing case or some Ponzi scheme.”

Some argued this past week that it isn’t worth the taxpayer’s money to bear the burden of imprisonment for cheaters. At the least, the punishment is too lenient.

DON SHOOPMAN is outdoors editor of The Daily Iberian.