Ted Nugent pleads guilty to poaching

bellero

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Rocker Ted Nugent has agreed to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in southeast Alaska.

Nugent made the admission in signing a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Calls seeking comment from Nugent, his Anchorage attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, and assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Schmidt were not immediately returned.

The plea agreement says Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Sukkwan Island days after wounding a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear.

According to the agreement, the hunt was filmed for his Outdoor Channel television show "Spirit of the Wild."

The document says Nugent knowingly possessed and transported the bear in misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act.

http://www.9news.com/entertainment/264464/343/Ted-Nugent-agrees-to-plead-guilty-in-illegal-kill-
 
Sounds to me kind of like he isn't up on the Regulations. I know I had to do some studying when I started hunting in Alberta. I would expect that the guides should make sure the client doesn't do that on their hunt. I think it would be difficult to know all of the regulation in the different locations Nugent hunts. I'll put part of the blame on the guides unless Ted knew what he was doing.
 
Originally Posted By: belleroThe plea agreement says Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Sukkwan Island days after wounding a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear.

It is not logical for a wounded animal to count toward a hunters bag/possession limits. There has got to be more to the story about the wounded bear. I'm wondering if the wounded bear was recovered.


 
Three years to clear a misdemeanor fish&game law violation? I think Fursniper is right. The timing on this can't be a coincidence.
 
More on the story...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/21/justice/alaska-nugent-bear-hunting/index.html?iref=obinsite


Quote:
Ted Nugent agrees to plea deal over illegal killing of black bear in Alaska

(CNN) -- Rocker and avid hunter Ted Nugent has agreed to pay a fine, serve probation and record a public service announcement as part of a deal to plead guilty to transporting an illegally killed black bear in Alaska, according to court documents.

The plea deal, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Anchorage, Alaska, stems from federal allegations that arose during a bear hunt in May 2009 that was filmed for Nugent's television show, "Spirit of the Wild," on the Outdoor Channel.

News of the plea deal broke a day after Nugent was questioned and cleared by the Secret Service over comments he made at an annual meeting of the National Rifle Association where he said he would be "dead or in jail" if President Barack Obama were re-elected.

In the plea agreement, Nugent admitted to shooting and killing a bear using a bow and arrow during a hunt on Sukkwan Island in southeast Alaska, just days after he wounded another bear.

Alaska limits licensed hunters to the bagging of one bear per hunting season. Under the law, the wounding of a bear counts toward the season's bag limit.

"Nugent failed to locate and harvest the wounded bear," the plea agreement said.

Where the federal charge against Nugent -- a misdemeanor count of violating the Lacey Act -- comes in to play, according to court documents, is that he left the island by boat with the dead bear and "knew or should have known, in the exercise of due care, that the black bear was taken, possessed or transported in violation of a law or regulation of the United States."

Neither the federal complaint nor the plea agreement revealed how federal authorities found out about the violation, though scenes from the hunt aired on Nugent's show. Nugent nor his attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, immediately responded to a CNN request for comment.

News of the plea deal comes as Nugent is promoting another bear hunt, this time in Quebec, Canada, on his web site.

As part of the plea deal, Nugent has agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, not to hunt or fish within Alaska or on any other U.S. Forest Service lands for one year. The deal also includes two years probation.

Additionally, according to the agreement, Nugent agreed to create a public service announcement that promotes the importance of a person's responsibility in knowing the rules and regulations of their hunting activities.

The televised announcement, which must be approved by federal prosecutors in Alaska, must be at least 30 to 60 seconds in length and be broadcast every second week on his television show for one 12-month period, according to the plea agreement.

A federal judge still must sign off on the agreement.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, the maximum penalty is one year in prison and $100,000 fine.

Nugent's attorney told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that his client, who has previously hunted in the same area, was unaware of the law, which was introduced less than five years ago. He told the newspaper he watched the video clip from Nugent's show and the arrow "touched" the bear and stuck in the ground.

"There wasn't any blood trail that they could find," Ross said. "There was a little blood apparently at the spot, but nothing that indicated the bear was hard hit."

On Thursday, the Secret Service said it resolved questions regarding comments that Nugent, a conservative activist and gun rights advocate, made about President Obama during a speech at an NRA convention in St. Louis, Missouri.

Secret Service clears Nugent after interview

"If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year," Nugent said, according to a video that the NRA posted on YouTube. "If you can't go home and get everybody in your lives to clean house in this vile, evil, America-hating administration, I don't even know what you're made out of."

The video has since been removed.

Many have questioned whether Nugent was alluding to violence against the president.

Earlier Thursday, Nugent issued a statement confirming his meeting and describing it as a "good, solid, professional meeting concluding that I have never made any threats of violence towards anyone. The meeting could not have gone better. I thanked them for their service, we shook hands and went about our business. God bless the good federal agents wherever they may be."

Nugent, the self-styled "Motor City Madman," gained musical fame in the 1960s as a member of the psychedelic band The Amboy Dukes, then as a solo act in the 1970s and later as a member of the 1980s supergroup [beeep] Yankees. He is probably best known for the1977 rock anthem, "Cat Scratch Fever."






While the fines and penalties are may be a little extreme ADK, it sounds like the violation was publicly aired as cause for the severity of such over a misdemeanor.
 
Originally Posted By: Rocky1More on the story...

Alaska limits licensed hunters to the bagging of one bear per hunting season. Under the law, the wounding of a bear counts toward the season's bag limit....

Nugent's attorney told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that his client, who has previously hunted in the same area, was unaware of the law, which was introduced less than five years ago. He told the newspaper he watched the video clip from Nugent's show and the arrow "touched" the bear and stuck in the ground.

"There wasn't any blood trail that they could find," Ross said. "There was a little blood apparently at the spot, but nothing that indicated the bear was hard hit."

If the video showed that the bear could have been killed later by another hunter, how could Nugent be in posession of it? This is a bad law and I hope the judge dismisses it.
 
Originally Posted By: Fursniper
If the video showed that the bear could have been taken later by another hunter, how could Nugent be in posession of it? This is a bad law and I hope the judge dismisses it.

A little lesson in reading comprehension.

Alaskan law is pretty clear, if you wound a bear, it is the same as a kill, and you burned your tag. He wounded a bear, he shot another bear. Guilty? Not a question, he even admitted it.



I nominate Nugent for the Non-sportsman of the year or to make it simple, Poacher of the Year
 
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Originally Posted By: FursniperIt is not logical for a wounded animal to count toward a hunters bag/possession limits.

Originally Posted By: Rocky1Alaska limits licensed hunters to the bagging of one bear per hunting season. Under the law, the wounding of a bear counts toward the season's bag limit....


As per your research above, Alaska law does state that if you draw blood, that constitutes a "kill" and counts toward your legal limit (in this case limit being one bear). This is commonly accepted practice, if not the law, in Africa and on many ranches across the US. The logic being, that the animal is probably a lost asset, which may or may not be the case every time. Personally, I do not disagree with this approach, as I feel that it encourages the hunter to make a clean kill, which should be every sportsman's primary objective. In this case he should have made himself aware of the law beforehand but that's just my opinion.

Originally Posted By: FursniperIf the video showed that the bear could have been killed later by another hunter, how could Nugent be in posession of it? This is a bad law and I hope the judge dismisses it.

Quote: ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Rocker Ted Nugent has agreed to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in southeast Alaska.


The charge was actually for transporting an illegally killed animal (reference the 2nd bear which was beyond his legal limit), not for "killing" the first bear, and Ted accepted responsibility for that violation, much to his credit. Again, JMO.

As OOF points out, this is not the first time Ted has been charged with a game violation, for what it's worth. I'm not familiar with any of the details on that issue, so will withold judgement as to whether this points to a propensity to scoff at game laws.

Originally Posted By: Orneryolfart357Something tells Me he needs to do his homework on the Regs. He was caught baiting and poaching a Spike Buck in Ca. a few years back as well.

Regards,
hm
 
Thanks, Oof. Had heard of the incident but not of the details. He does a lot of hunting, but seems he does not check out the regulations too well beforehand.

It is always disappointing to see anyone, especially someone in the limelite give all hunters a black eye, whether through intent or simple lack of attention to details (regulation).

Regards,
hm
 
You are right hm.. although I dont know what it takes to air a television show, I would think that someone would be researching the regs, wether it be Ted, or the Producers and Guides. Anti's will use anything to pursue their agenda. We as hunters need to stay on our toes.
 
While I'm not going to try and defend his previous charge, the one with the bear was a result of changes to regulations that he wasn't aware of...

Quote:Nugent's attorney told the Anchorage Daily News on Friday that his client, who has previously hunted in the same area, was unaware of the law, which was introduced less than five years ago.

It's pretty difficult to keep up with all the changes in the laws of one's own state day to day, let alone the changes to laws in other states. This one was obviously overlooked.

No one, regardless of how brazen he may be, is knowingly going to film himself committing a crime, and air it.



Originally Posted By: Orneryolfart357You are right hm.. although I dont know what it takes to air a television show, I would think that someone would be researching the regs, wether it be Ted, or the Producers and Guides. Anti's will use anything to pursue their agenda. We as hunters need to stay on our toes.

Sounds like someone needs to be researching, that isn't. Again, if anyone in the organization was aware of these violations, why would they be aired, and even if they aren't aired, why waste the time and film to record them if you're not going to air them, or if they could come back to haunt you in the manner currently seen.

 
All we can really be sure of is that he did not research the current regulations sufficiently, or he chose to ignore them. I would prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and say he probably neglected to inform himself of the regs, which, as dogcatcher pointed out, is no excuse. It is every hunter's responsibilty to know the regs beforehand.

It would seem to me that someone of his stature, as a member of the board of directors of NRA, and with his large circle of influence in both the outdoor sports and music? (? not a typo, sorry, not a fan of his type of music?
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), that it would be especially incumbent upon him to do his homework on the regs and/or impress upon his production staff the importance of doing so out of respect for the sport. JMO

Regards,
hm
 
If he drew blood and he and the guides searched for the bear and couldn't find it, and Ted was ignorant of the law, then the guides should have put a end to the hunt. If he was informed or knew of the law and went ahead with shooting another bear then he got what he deserved. All I can say about Nugent is that he's always on our side and has a high profile that gets him air time which is a benefit to all of us gun owners and hunters.
 
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