Owner serves time for workers' comp violation

COEUR d'ALENE - The owner of a Coeur d'Alene fishing shop recently served five days in jail and had his firm closed for three days due to a workers' compensation violation.

Joe Roope, Jr., the owner of Joe Roope's Castaway Fly Shop, Inc., in Coeur d'Alene, was ordered by the District Court to serve jail time for violating a court order prohibiting him from operating his business without a policy of workers' compensation insurance in effect for his employees.

"Joe Roope would like to take this opportunity to inform the public we are open for business and healthy as ever," the company wrote Tuesday in an email statement to The Press. "Time served; insurance in place; open for business."

The company at 1114 N. Fourth St. has been in business for 28 years.

The Idaho Industrial Commission, the state agency that ensures Idaho employers have the required workers' compensation insurance in effect for their employees, obtained a judgment, including an injunction, against Roope in 2011 after it claimed his workers' compensation insurance policy lapsed for eight months.

The judgment in 2011 followed two previous lapses in insurance as well as two previous injunctions against Roope, the first in 2003 and the second in 2007.

Workers' compensation insurance is mandatory in Idaho for any employer with one or more full- or part-time employees.

The Industrial Commission is responsible for administering Idaho's workers' compensation system, which is designed to ensure that all Idaho workers have insurance for work-related injuries. Penalties for failure to provide insurance can include business closure, jail time and fines.

Information on Idaho workers' compensation is available at www.iic.idaho.gov.