More MT Illegal Outfitting

[Nemont]

What is up with people from down south coming to Montana to break game laws? This is the third major case of illegal outfitting in the past 6 months all of them involve people from AL, NC, GA, TX, LA? What gives?

Sentences Issued in Illegal Outfitting & Landowner-Sponsored License Cases
Monday, March 1st 2010
GLASGOW, Mont. – A northeastern Montana landowner and 10 hunters from North Carolina and Alabama have been sentenced on state criminal charges stemming from an illegal outfitting / landowner sponsor operation that was investigated in 2008 and 2009.

According to Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ (FWP) Criminal Investigator Lennie Buhmann, most of the violations took place on prime Missouri River bottom property between Glasgow and Wolf Point in northern McCone County.

Landowner James “Bert” Twitchell, 66, of Wolf Point, was charged with two misdemeanor counts of acting as an outfitter without a license and was recently assessed a $170 fine by McCone County Justice of the Peace Mary Garfield.

Twitchell instructed two clients to illegally trespass and hunt on neighboring private lands, as well as on nearby public lands managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Twitchell is not a licensed as an outfitter in Montana.


Through a program administered by FWP, properly certified landowners can sponsor non-resident hunters for big game hunting. Certified landowners must submit a legal description of the deeded property where the non-resident hunters are limited to hunt.

The program states that the sponsor will supervise the non-residents’ hunting and inform the hunters of game and trespass laws; submit proper records of the non-residents that hunted; and accept no monetary consideration for enabling the non-resident to obtain a license. FWP Region 6 Warden Captain Mike Herman said Twitchell was properly certified and was allowed to sponsor up to 15 non-resident hunters.

But FWP Investigator Buhmann and state officers observed several of Twitchell’s sponsored hunters involved in illegal activities. Observations included trespassing onto neighboring private lands, harvesting over-limits of deer, and hunting big game animals without licenses. During the investigation, three state District Court search warrants were served, and all of Twitchell’s hunting party members were contacted by authorities.

Buhmann said landowner-sponsored deer combination licenses were misused in the illegal operation or were used after the hunters trespassed on property where they were not sponsored. In other instances, he said, hunters who could not make the trip to Montana would send their combination license with another hunter who used it improperly.

“Defendants in this case showed a total disregard of the hunting laws in Montana,” Buhmann said. “While some of the violators took responsibility for their actions, others did not.”

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in people abusing the landowner-sponsored license program across the state,” Herman added. “These types of cases take a lot of time and effort to sort out, but people should be aware that we’re constantly looking at these licenses. Hunters, as well as landowners, will be charged if violations are uncovered.”

The other defendants recently sentenced by Justice of the Peace Mary Garfield were:
• Tony Mashburn, 52, of Deatsville, AL. Mashburn was charged with a single misdemeanor count of possessing and transporting an unlawfully killed white-tailed deer buck; four counts of using deer licenses that belonged to others; a count of unlawfully possessing a motion-tracking device while hunting; two counts of possessing and carrying a license belonging to another person; a count of killing a game bird from a public roadway; a count of failing to tag a game animal; a count of hunting waterfowl without the required state waterfowl stamp; two counts of killing more than one game animal (white-tailed bucks) without authorization; three counts of killing more than one game animal (white-tailed does) without authorization; and one count of possessing an illegally killed antelope buck.

He was ordered to pay $5,445 in fines and $2,400 in restitution. A 2007 charge of killing a game animal (mule deer buck) without a valid license also earned Tony Mashburn another $535 fine and $500 in restitution. In addition, he lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for a period of four years.

Buhmann said other incriminating information gathered during the investigation was turned over to authorities in Georgia. Officials there recently charged Tony Mashburn on a variety of additional wildlife-related charges.

• Tammy Mashburn, 47, of Deatsville, AL. She faced a count of unlawfully possessing and transporting a white-tailed buck deer; unlawfully possessing and transporting an antelope buck; and two counts of loaning her license to another person. She was fined a total of $1,540 and lost her hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years.

• Randall Haga, 42, of Falkville, AL. He faced one count of unlawfully killing and possessing a white-tailed buck and one count of unlawfully possessing and transporting an antelope buck. He was fined $1,070, ordered to pay $500 in restitution and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years.


• Roger Queen, 41, of Cullowhee, N.C. Queen was charged with one count of loaning a license to another person. He was fined $235 and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for one year.

• William Gibson, 66, of Waynesville, N.C. Gibson faced two counts of killing and possessing a white-tailed buck without a license. He was assessed $1,070 in fines, $1,000 in restitution, and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years.

• Jeffrey Gibson, 43, of Tuckasegee, N.C. He was charged with one count of killing more than one game animal without authorization; one count of illegally possessing an unlawfully killed white-tailed buck; one count of loaning a license to another person; one count of possessing and carrying another person’s license; and one count of hunting a game animal without a valid license. He was fined $1,975, ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution, and had his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges taken away for three years.

• Tommy Gibson, 24, of Tuckasegge, N.C. He was charged with one count of failing to tag a game animal; one count of hunting a game animal without a valid license; and one count of killing a game animal without a valid license. Tommy Gibson was fined $1,205, ordered to pay $500 in restitution, and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years.

• Bobby Allen Gibson, 25, of Tuckasegee, N.C. He was charged with one count of wasting and abandoning a game bird; one count of unlawfully using a rifle to shoot a game bird; and two counts of loaning licenses to others. Bobby Gibson was fined $790, ordered to pay $25 in restitution, and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for two years.

In November 2009, Bobby Gibson was also sentenced in North Carolina’s U.S. District Court to 10 months in federal prison for a Lacey Act violation involving an illegally harvested black bear. In that case, Gibson also received a one-year term of supervised release and must perform 100 hours of community service.

• Paul Millsaps, 65, of Tuckasegee, N.C. He was charged with one count of possessing and carrying the license of another person; one count of failing to tag a game animal; and one count of possessing an unlawfully killed white-tailed buck. Millsaps was fined $805 and lost his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges for three years.

 

[JoseCuervo]

What is up with people from down south coming to Montana to break game laws? This is the third major case of illegal outfitting in the past 6 months all of them involve people from AL, NC, GA, TX, LA? What gives?

I am guessing I could make a couple of in-bred, redneck, racist Southern Comments....


Kind of interesting the Montana guy only got a $170 fine....

Through a program administered by FWP, properly certified landowners can sponsor non-resident hunters for big game hunting. Certified landowners must submit a legal description of the deeded property where the non-resident hunters are limited to hunt.

Probably won't bring this up, but does this "program" mean that FWP provides tags for Ranchers to ONLY hunt on Deeded property? What if there is BLM land inside the deeded property, are the Out of Staters allowed to shoot animals out of the intermingled public lands?

“We’re definitely seeing an increase in people abusing the landowner-sponsored license program across the state,” Herman added.

Let me see if I understand Montana now....

You can get a Landowner Sponsored Tag...

You can get a Outfitter Sponsored Tag....

You can get a Homesick Former Family Member Tag .....


As an un-biased, outside observer, it kind of seems like all the "special" tags are created to allow the State's game animals to be provided to Special Interest Groups as some sort of political gratuity.

Can't be a lot of science being used by the State of Montana....

 

[Nemont]

Jose,

According to the law they cannot hunt public lands that are intermingled or landlocked. Now in practice I know for certain this is not enforced. Having turned in a couple of guys who were sponsored by another landowner and insisted they could hunt BLM lands I can tell the dept. never used to be too responsive to this issue. Perhaps that has changed. Rules is supposed to be only on private deeded lands of the sponsor.

The way it works is the land owners sends a the legal descriptions to Helena with the affidavit saying they are the landowner, The landowner also must sign the application of the sponsored hunter. If one wants to see a process ripe for abuse this is it. Money changes hands and tags are "sold" etc, etc.

I am not absolving the local resident as they are just as guilty but somehow when a land owner gets in front of the local Justice of the Peace and they are good buds from high school, drink beer together on the weekends or are brother in laws or whatever the JP has a difficult time fining the local guy very much.

Nemont

 

[Sytes]

Agree - a little surprising seeing as the member RESPONSIBLE for the activities of sponsored hunters received a whoopin $170 fine... Yet those he was responsible for are whalloped with what would be a reasonable fine $1000 + each.

Something is not right with that picture.

Twitchell instructed two clients to illegally trespass and hunt on neighboring private lands...

IMO, The fine towards the responsible person (Twitchell) should equal the combined total as fined to all those he was... RESPONSIBLE for.

This is a FIRST in my book for hearing of a hunting trespass fine that is only $85.00! I know of one who was nabbed this last season hunting pronghorn on the wrong side of a property fence... It was $400 +!!!!!

Forget the outsiders and how fubar'd they are... We need to hold accountability towards the jack arse who is responsible for them... This sends a simple lame message saying, IF YOUR CAUGHT as the land owner responsible for those you sponsor - meh... oh well...

Figure it this way, what a slap on the wrist this was... The only fine is for the 2 trespassing issues... If there was no trespassing... $170... that is a DISGRACE!

This goes back to holding the responsible person... responsible. He should lose his privilage of sponsoring hunters for his property for X amount of years if can not be a responsible person.