Baiting Bust

[JABIII]

Posted on Monday, March 12, 2007

R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Eddie McKissick, Senior Resident in Charge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, announced that defendant Jimmy Spurgeon Smith of Highlands County, Florida was sentenced on March 5, 2007 by United States District Court Judge K. Michael Moore to one year probation and fined $55,000.

On November 2, 2006, the United States Attorney’s Office filed a misdemeanor information charging Smith with two counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by baiting land for the purpose of causing any person to take migratory game, and rallying migratory game birds, all in violation of Title 16, United States Code, Sections 704(b)(2), 707(c), 703, and 707(a).


For the past several years, Smith leased his hunting lodge and a portion of his 2,700 acre ranch to Centex Homes. Centex paid Smith an annual lease fee of $54,400 for hunting privileges. Beginning October 2, 2006, Smith placed 200 pounds of brown top millet onto his property in preparation for an upcoming dove hunt. On October 7, 2006, the date of the scheduled hunt, Smith covered the bait prior to the hunters’ arrival so as not to alert them to the baiting. In addition to baiting his fields, Smith used an all terrain vehicle to rally and stir up the doves. Law enforcement documented at least 40 hunters on the property. After being questioned by law enforcement, Smith admitted to baiting his fields and said that he did so because he wanted the hunters to have a good time.

According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, this is one of the most significant sentences imposed involving the baiting of a field for hunting.

Mr. Acosta commended the investigative efforts of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Rinku Talwar.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov/ or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov/.

[JABIII]

Four indicted for baiting-related hunting violation

Published: Tuesday, March 13, 2007 4:11 PM CDT
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JONESBORO - Patrick W. McLane, 24, and Mitchell L. McLane, 51, both of Jonesboro, and doing business as the Gander Flats Hunting Club in Jonesboro, were indicted March 7 for violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

According to the Office of the U.S. States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, both have been accused of “placing bait for the purpose of allowing any person to take or attempt to take migratory game birds.”

The violation took place on or about Dec. 25 to Dec. 27, 2004. The charges carry with it a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment or a fine of $100,000, or both, and a term of supervised release of not more than one year.


The second count of the same indictment charges Rodney A. Mezo, 28, of Grand Tower, and James A. Rogers, 27, of Jonesboro, with unlawfully taking migratory game birds by the aid of baiting on a baited area.

Mezo and Rogers’ violation place approximately Jan. 15, 2005. Their charged offense carries with it a maximum penalty of six months’ imprisonment or a fine of $15,000, or both, and a term of supervised release of not more than one year.

Investigation of this case was conducted by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service



Office of Law Enforcement and the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Conservation Police, and the case is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney James E. Crowe, III.

[JABIII]

Turkey poacher gets a severe penalty





VDGIF officers John Cobb (left) and Paul Atkins look over evidence seized during a search of Jason Cook's home.

KEN PERROTTE
Ken Perrotte's outdoors column
3/3/2007


A tip from a hunter was the key to unlocking an investigation into wild turkey poaching that resulted in the plea bargain conviction last week of a Caroline County man.

Dubbed a "serial wild turkey poacher" by game wardens, Jason W. Cook, 30, a former Spotsylvania County animal control officer, was charged with 93 criminal counts in Caroline County. He pled guilty to eight of the most serious offenses and was sentenced by District Court Judge Frank Benser to 15 days in jail with the remainder of the six-month sentence suspended upon condition of good behavior.

Cook was also levied with more than $10,000 in fines and court costs, including $3,500 in "Wild Turkey Replacement Costs" for seven turkeys killed illegally in 2006 and a donation of $3,500 to the Virginia Game Protection Fund. In addition, he lost all hunting rights in North America for seven years and the ability to transport any game animals or birds in Virginia for seven years.

He has also been banned for life from hunting at Fort A.P. Hill, where several of the offenses occurred. And he faces 100 hours of community service in Richmond County where other poaching violations took place.

Details of the case were released yesterday by Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries law enforcement officers.


Cook left his job soon after being convicted in Richmond County District Court in December on three turkey poaching violations. Richmond County attorney Wayne Emery had volunteered to be a special prosecutor in the case had it reached trial stage in Caroline, according to Sgt. Paul Atkins, a supervisory game warden.

Cook's Woodford house was a treasure trove of turkey parts. A search turned up 81 adult male turkey beards, dozens of turkey legs and spurs and several sets of tail feathers.

Special Agent John Cobb, who investigated the case, said Cook confessed on tape that some 90 percent of the 81 gobblers had been killed illegally over his 15 years of hunting.

What really got the hackles up on the hunter who brought Cook down was alleged activity when Cook had taken his 5-year-old son hunting at Fort A.P. Hill on the special youth turkey hunting day set aside for kids 15 and under each year.

According to Cobb, the source said Cook had taken his child's shotgun and shot the turkey as the youngster watched.

"He apparently did this even though the youngster had learned how to use the shotgun and could put the pellets on the target," Cobb said. "To take a youth shotgun from your kid's hand--we knew what we were dealing with."

Following the tip, game wardens staked out Cook's house and observed him acting suspiciously as he pulled up shortly after sunrise on April 20, 2006.

Cobb said Cook left his driveway and drove across the yard close to a basement door access, then retrieved a wild turkey carcass and brought it inside. He emerged 20 minutes later wearing his Spotsylvania uniform and carrying a black trash bag, which was later found to have the unwanted parts from the turkey.

Confronted later in the day, Cook "denied killing or even touching a wild turkey that day," according to Cobb. A search warrant was then obtained and the case quickly developed.

The bird, it turns out, had been killed in Richmond County that same morning.


Yesterday at the VDGIF's Fredericksburg office, Cobb and Atkins presented a table full of evidence taken from the Cook home. They plan to turn the evidence into a display that relates to the importance of hunter ethics, Cobb explained.

"Over the last three years, we could only find evidence that Cook had legally checked one turkey," Cobb said. The legal annual limit is three birds, but Cobb said Cook confessed, after being read his rights, that in April 2006 alone he killed nine turkeys and had shot at and missed three others.

Cobb said Cook boasted, "I can promise you that's it right there; you just can't get any better than that."

Cobb said Cook confessed to taking as many as 12 turkeys in a year and as many as four in a single day, although at least one of the photos taken in evidence shows him posing with a dog and five freshly killed turkeys. Numerous other photos of Cook alone with multiple birds were also collected in evidence. Some photos with turkeys show him in a uniform with a badge, partially obscured by leafy camouflage.

"I asked him why he did what he did, and he told me, 'The adrenaline rush,'" Cobb said.

"This plea agreement was two months in the making," Cobb said, adding the state agreed to drop lesser illegal possession charges related to many of the turkey beards found.

Cook's sentence also called for writing a letter of apology. Part of his letter to the "Sports Men and Women of the Commonwealth of Virginia," read: "My goal was to go as often as possible during spring turkey season and try to be successful. I did not realize I may be taking opportunity away from others however looking back now I realize I made a mistake and I am truly sorry for it."

Cobb, Virginia's Game Warden of the Year for 2006, said: "You usually never want to see people lose their job over a hunting violation, but [Cook] was in the wrong line of work. He had to have known better about what he was doing every day."

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2...3032007/264725