POWELL - A judge has ordered three men to pay a combined $17,000 in fines and restitution for poaching seven mule deer off the Chief Joseph Highway north of Cody in 2009.

Circuit Judge Bruce Waters of Cody accepted plea agreements between the Park County Attorney's Office and the three men.

The men are 26-year-old Thomas G. Howard of Colorado Springs and 30-year-old Douglas Hutchins and 26-year-old Cody Waters of Cody. Waters is no relation to the judge.

In addition to imposing the fines and restitution, Judge Waters placed the three on unsupervised probation and banned them from hunting or fishing for the next six years.

Court records state that the three men admitted killing the deer after being confronted by Powell Game Warden Chris Queen in 2010.

$17k for 7 mule deer.......seems plenty punitive to me.

Well lets see, that comes out to less than $5700.00 in fines per hunter or lesss than $2850..00 per deer. I think things could have been a lot worse.