From the Louisville Courier-Journal Sunday 26Sep04.

---



Man to pay fine, serve jail time for poaching elk



Prestonsburg, KY A Floyd County man has been ordered to pay $2,000 fine plus $7,500 in restitution after pleading guilty to poaching a bull elk this month.



Ronald J. Johnston, 20, of Dwale. Pleaded guilty to one count of illegally taking elk, one count of spotlighting with intent to poach, one count of hunting big game without permission and one count of taking wildlife from a vehicle.



Johnson will also serve 90 days. He paid $155.50 in court costs and lost hunting privileges for three years.



Johnson and three other men were charged with poaching the elk around the first of the month on the Ivy Creek strip mine near Ivel, according to the Kentucky Department of Fish & Wildlife Resources.



The elk was shot several times with a .22-caliber rifle, allegedly while being spotlighted by a vehicle's headlights. Charges against the other three men are pending in Floyd District Court.

Scum Bag should lose his hunting priveliges for a MINIMUM of FIVE years. Three is not enough. At least he is doing ninety days.

FN in MT

A couple of years ago a friend of one of my nieces killed a nice 3x3 in Martin co. He also drove it around to show off.

And his greatest act of genius, HE TOOK IT TO A CHECK STATION!!!!!!!!

We don't have to go to check stations in Ky. you can call it in!!!!

He got similar fines etc. loss of gear and truck, just didn't have the jail time, since it was deer season

AND THE IDIOT THOUGHT HE HAD KILLED THE BIGGEST DEER IN HISTORY.

This really po's me, that was one area where you could take the kids to see elk. If those jerks are blasting away with .22's, it won't take long to put the herd into hiding.



P.S. I've found sign on my land and I'm about 90 miles from the re-introduction site.

BTW, I think he should loose his hunting rights for life.
I have been tickled to death knowing that my grandsons will be able to hunt elk, in their lifetimes, within a few miles, possibly on our own land.
A few years ago, when our deer herd finally started producing some very nice bucks, our area turned into a war zone at night. Our home as well as several neighbors were even struck by poachers.
It got so bad that my friends and I had to start making patrols a t night, armed with Q BEAMS and cameras.

Loose it for life time ought to be what he looses his hunting priviledges for! 3 or 5 yrs is no where near enough. In 4 yrs he might be out doing the same thing again.

Stuff like this is BS.

When my uncle in WVa had black angus cattle some of these idiots would come and spotlight on his property and shoot "something" between the eyes and then come back the next morning and offer to pay him to help haul out to the road with his tractor the "biggest deer" they ever saw.

My uncle would go with them to find one of his angus cattle with a bullet hole between the eyes and stiff as a board.

These people are just straight up dumb asses with no class or morals.

seafire

the $9655 will slow him down more than anything

The Adirondack-Catskill Chapter of SCI has so far donated 2 Robo-deer to the Dept. of Environmental Conservation in our area. They are a great way to nail roadhunters and nightshooters and give us some good press as the Good Guys, not the ones shooting road signs.