HERMITAGE, Pa. — One of the two men who pleaded guilty for their roles in a Cleveland fishing tournament cheating scandal is now facing criminal charges in Pennsylvania for illegally hunting deer.
In May, 36-year-old Chase Cominsky was ordered to spend 10 days in jail for the September 2022 cheating incident that made national headlines. He was also placed on probation and had his fishing license suspended for a maximum of three years.
On Monday, the Pennsylvania Game Commission-Northwest filed eight charges against Cominsky accusing him of unlawful killing or taking of big game, unlawful taking or possession of game or wildlife, unlawful acts concerning licenses, and tagging and reporting big game kills for allegedly poaching deer.
In a criminal complaint, the Game Commission says it received information that between 2013 and 2021, Cominsky harvested several antlered Whitetail deer unlawfully after legal shooting hours, or during closed season, without a valid license. The commission says during that period, Cominsky had his hunting privileges suspended in Pennsylvania and was not allowed to hunt in the state.
In April of this year, a search warrant was executed at Cominsky's Hermitage, PA home and five deer mounts were seized. Three of the five deer mounts were tagged with another person's name. That person had never harvested a deer before.
Cominsky is scheduled to appear in a Mercer County PA courtroom on Nov. 14.
Mercer County court records show Cominsky also has a forgery case against him pending.
Cominsky became connected with Cleveland when he and Jacob Runyan were competing at the Lake Erie Walleye Trail tournament near North Marginal Road and Lakeshore Boulevard last year. The pair were initially declared the winners, but controversy soon erupted.
"The director of the tournament noticed Runyan and Cominsky's walleyes weighed more than they looked and sliced open the fish," the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's office recounted. "Ten weights were located inside the walleyes, eight weighing 12 ounces and two weighing eight ounces along with several walleye filets."
The incident was caught on video and shared across social media. Runyan and Cominsky were immediately disqualified and later arrested. Had they won the tournament, the duo would have received a prize of nearly $29,000.
Before Cominsky and Runyan were sentenced, one of their defense attorneys said the pair would have to live with the scandal for the rest of their lives.
"These guys are going to have to suffer this forever," the attorney said. "When they go on a date or when they apply for a job, anytime they’re Googled this case is going to come up."
3News' Ryan Haidet and Neil Fischer contributed to this story