Wyoming Outfitter to Prison

[JoseCuervo]

License scheme nets outfitter prison

JACKSON (AP) -- A former Jackson-area outfitter has been sent to federal prison after being found guilty of transporting illegally taken game across state lines in a phony hunting license scheme.

Joseph O. Dowdy, the manager and outfitter for the Heart Six Ranch near Moran Junction from 1998-2000, was sentenced recently by U.S. District Judge Clarence Brimmer to 14 months in prison. He was also fined $8,000 and ordered to pay $200 to a victim's compensation fund.

Dowdy, 54, was found guilty on two of three felony counts in a February trial in Cheyenne. He was accused of misleading clients into believing they had obtained unconventional licenses to harvest elk near Yellowstone National Park in September 1999.

According to the investigation, Dowdy told two of his clients, who were able to draw only deer licenses, that he could provide them with special governor's or commissioner's elk licenses.

After the elk were killed, the hunters claimed Dowdy said he had the licenses and "would take care of everything."

The hunters, Everett C. Klugar, 49, of Social Circle, Ga., and Robert F. Jones, 59, of Cumming, Ga., paid $5,000 each for the hunt and never saw any elk licenses, according to the probe.

Another hunter, Brian P. Harris, 64, of Baton Rouge, La. -- the owner of the Heart Six Ranch -- reported the same circumstances surrounding a 6-point bull he harvested Sept. 29, 1999. After shooting the elk, he contended Dowdy said he had a "special license" in his pocket and that he would "take care of it."

Klugar, Jones and Harris accepted a plea agreement in exchange for testifying against Dowdy. Each was fined $1,250 and ordered to pay $4,000 restitution.

Hunters have a responsibility to know they are properly licensed, said Fred Herbel, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department wildlife investigator who led the probe.

"If a hunter receives an offer that sounds too good to be true, it probably is," he said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents in Georgia and Louisiana helped collect evidence, but the investigation was put on hold following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because federal wildlife agents were reassigned to airline security.

The case began when a retired New Mexico game warden, who was working as a wrangler for the ranch, overheard conversations of illegal activity and passed the information to authorities.

 

[Ithaca 37]

When I read the title of this topic I thought it would be Pug Doykin!

 

[BuzzH]

HAHA, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Oak]

Nah, he pleaded out.

Oak

 

[Elkhunter]

I don't think the time, 14 months, is long enough.

Good find Moosie.

 

[BuzzH]

The funny thing about guys like Pug is how fast they change their tune.

When he was a guide,(I'm using that term loosely), he would have wanted more wilderness to guide hunters in...now that he's a timber baron (again using the term loosely), he wants no wilderness.

A true hipocrite.

 

[Moosie]

Speaking of Pug....

http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2004/07/14/build/wyoming/35-plan-blasted.inc

"It won't mean nothing because you still have to go through the federal bureaucracy to get the timber. It all sounds good when you hear it on the news," he said.

 

[feclnogn]

Whatever happened to that guy? I missed out on that I quess.

 

[Ithaca 37]

fecl, he eventually alienated so many people, even his close buddies, he got banned from all the hunting BBs he was posting on. Remember Yooper, his buddy that left this board and started his own? Yooper's site turned out to be the gathering place for some real lowlife's, and even they got turned off by bcat so much they banned him. Pug Doykin is one of the most self destructive drunks I ever knew.

I don't know whatever happened to Yooper's site. Last I knew it was getting about two posts a week.

 

[feclnogn]

I remember that. Wasn't it at the same time that RB was here and bolted to form her own board?? From some of the posts above I thought maybe he got tossed in jail or something to that effect. It's amazing some of the indviduals who have passed through this forum.

 

[Moosie]

It's amaising some that stay

I actually Email Mrs BCat every now and then. She keeps me in the Loop on what they are doing. Although I'm sure Doug doesn't like me much at times, He is Truely a Good guy. I would have him in camp or help him out anytime. He is jsut one of those people that shouldn't be on a UBB.