A suspected poacher accused of violating California’s eight-year-old ban on abalone harvest along the Sonoma Coast appeared in court in Santa Rosa Friday morning.

In a brief appearance before Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Kristine Burk, Andrii Chmukh, 34, asked to be provided with a Ukrainian language interpreter.

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Judge Burk granted the request, and scheduled Chmukh’s next appearance for Jan. 5.

Chmukh, a resident of Citrus Heights in Sacramento County, was apprehended the night of Nov. 7, after California Fish and Wildlife officers spotted moving lights at Ocean Cove, just south of Salt Point State Park — “the kind of lights that usually mean someone is doing more than sightseeing,” according to a report posted by the state agency on social media.

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