http://www.oregonlive.com/paci...caught_with_3_b.html



Judges say men caught with 3 bighorn sheep heads don't have to pay $25,000 each

Three rural Oregon defendants have succeeded in fighting off $25,000 restitution orders from judges who presided over their criminal cases. The men all admitted to illegally possessing bighorn sheep heads.

Aimee Green | The Oregonian/OregonLive

May 05, 2017 at 6:00 AM, updated May 05, 2017 at 11:38 AM

Three men found responsible in the illegal beheadings of three bighorn sheep in rural Oregon won’t have to pay $25,000 each as penalties.

Judges in Gilliam and Wasco counties ruled this week that a state law meant to discourage poaching doesn’t empower them to order the men to pay the penalties -- even though prosecutors had argued that it did.

Justin Samora, 33, and Cody Plagmann, 37, were the subjects of a story in The Oregonian/OregonLive last weekend about the battle over forcing poachers to pay big money as a deterrent. The two friends were caught in April 2016 after a driver on Interstate 84 spotted one of them standing on a hillside over a dead bighorn sheep from a protected herd in the Columbia River Gorge in Gilliam County. Troopers found two black garbage bags -- each with the head of a bighorn sheep in it -- on the hillside.

The rulings also mark a victory for Jason Begay, 26, who was caught with a ram’s head in his house in Wasco County in May 2016. He claimed that he found the animal already dead and decided to cut off its head and take it home. But that was enough to convict him -- like Samora and Plagmann -- of an illegal taking or possession of wildlife.

Since the three men were arrested last year, state lawmakers have raised the penalty for illegally killing or possessing the body parts of a bighorn sheep from $25,000 to $50,000. That's one of more than a dozen penalties that lawmakers have increased as of Jan. 1: State law now calls for poachers to pay $7,500 for a cougar or a black bear; $15,000 for an elk with six-point antlers and $50,000 for a moose with antlers.


But defense attorneys for Samora, Plagmann and Begay argued that state law doesn’t explicitly say a judge can order defendants to pay up in criminal court as restitution.

Prosecutors say that’s precisely what the law was intended to do. In the past two months, judges in Linn and Benton counties have ordered at least four other men to pay $7,500 to $15,000 in restitution for killing elk, deer and at least one wild turkey.

But in written rulings on Samora's and Plagmann’s cases, Gilliam County Circuit Judge John Olson wrote that the law explicitly allows the State Fish and Wildlife Commission to file a lawsuit for $25,000 per sheep from the men, but it doesn’t say that the judge can order the defendants to pay.

Olson wrote that the commission is free to file a lawsuit if it so chooses.

In Begay’s case, Wasco County Circuit Judge Janet Stauffer wrote that the prosecution hadn’t proven that Begay’s crime directly resulted in the loss of $25,000 in tangible "economic damages" to the state.

Mike Arnold, Plagmann's defense attorney, described the arrest and prosecution of his client "a disappointing waste of resources."

"All Cody (Plagmann) and the co-defendant (Samora) did was cut off the heads of two already dead rams," Arnold wrote in an email to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "There is no economic loss to the state for a dead ram in two pieces versus one."

Although the three men have so far avoided the huge penalties, they still will have misdemeanor convictions on their records.

Begay is scheduled to be sentenced in June.

Plagmann and Samora, who already have been sentenced, were ordered to one year of probation, 40 to 80 hours of community service, a three-year ban from hunting and fines ranging from $1,500 to $2,000. Plagmann also received a 40-day jail sentence.

-- Aimee Green

Seems like a great place to procure a bighorn under unscrupulous circumstances! $1500-2000 is chump-change!

Sad deal from the start.

Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:
Seems like a great place to procure a bighorn under unscrupulous circumstances! $1500-2000 is chump-change!

Sad deal from the start.

Zeke

...and only given a misdemeanor charge at that!

Easy to see why law enforcement gets frustrated when they arrest them only to have some dimwit judge pretty much let them go.

Ridiculous!

So were they poached?
Apparently found dead
Stupid decisions? Probably
Anyway, that's the danger of all these laws and fines
It doesn't differentiate

Original news story from April 2016.


http://www.oregonlive.com/paci...an_brazenly_gut.html



Link has a photo of one of the rams.



I-84 driver spots man in brazen killing of bighorn sheep beside freeway, calls police

Aimee Green | The Oregonian/OregonLive



on April 04, 2016 at 1:09 PM, updated April 04, 2016 at 5:06 PM


A driver who spotted a man shortly after he apparently killed a bighorn sheep along Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge on Sunday called police, leading to the arrests of two men.

Oregon State Police responded to find the remains of two bighorn sheep, which had been beheaded. Police suspect one of the men tracked down and shot the sheep, with the assistance of his companion.

Oregon's roughly 5,000 bighorn sheep are protected by law. Last year, 21,805 hunters entered a lottery for 96 coveted tags, each allowing them to kill one of the animals.

"It's an outrage that someone would poach a bighorn sheep, when hunters can wait their whole life and still never get the opportunity to hunt this iconic species," said Jeremy Thompson, an Oregon Fish & Wildlife biologist, in a news release Monday. "This herd is also a popular viewing attraction for people driving along I-84 and has been there since 1993."

State police received a call about 9:45 a.m. about a man bending over a dead big-game animal next to I-84 at milepost 119, east of Biggs Junction in Gilliam County.

Troopers responded and found Justin M. Samora, 32, of Utah. They questioned then arrested him on a charge of aiding in a game violation. While troopers were talking to Samora, some passing drivers stopped to report seeing a man hiding in the brush to the west.

That's when troopers discovered the two severed sheep heads nearby. Lt. Bill Fugate said the animals weren't gutted -- and they might have been killed in order to mount their heads on a wall as trophies.

"It appears they left the bodies behind," Fugate said. "They took only the heads."

Troopers began scouring the region for the unidentified, second man.

About six hours later, at about 4 p.m., authorities found Cody J. Plagmann of Albany hiding along railroad tracks about two miles away. Plagmann, 37, was arrested and charged with taking or possessing a bighorn sheep, wasting of a game animal and hunting on another's cultivated or enclosed land.

Anyone who witnessed the killings or has information about them is asked to call state police in The Dalles at 541-296-9646.

-- Aimee Green

agreen@oregonian.com

503-294-5119

Thank you Kathi for the clarification

quote:

So were they poached?Apparently found deadStupid decisions? Probably Anyway, that's the danger of all these laws and finesIt doesn't differentiate

In Texas, it is illegal for a citizen to stop and remove the head and antlers or just the antlers from a road killed buck deer.

Where is the line drawn? Did these guys kill those sheep just for the heads? Had the sheep been hit by a vehicle and died on the side of the road?

What is to stop someone/anyone from intentionally hitting a big game animal with a vehicle in hopes of recovering a good set of antlers/horns?

IF they found the animals dead (since the news stories just say 'apparently killed' and 'bending over a dead animal'), then if they were true sportsmen, they would have called the game warden before they did anything else and wait. Looks mighty suspicious and the Oregon Fish and Wildlife should file the suit.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
Original news story from April 2016.


http://www.oregonlive.com/paci...an_brazenly_gut.html



"... Police suspect one of the men tracked down and shot the sheep, with the assistance of his companion."


.

.

The problem too many of us that claim to be ETHICAL HUNTERS, do not want to address, is that there are a lot of "HUNTERS" in our ranks, that simply ARE NOT ETHICAL!!!!!!!!!

The deal few of us want to address, is not only are there unethical hunters, WILLING to poach game like those rams, but there are also "HUNTERS" willing to purchase such trophies.

We are our own worst enemies on so many levels as to be pathetic!

Didn't this story start out a year or 2 ago and at the time the men claimed they were Indians? Or is that a different Oregon Sheep poaching case I'm confusing this with.
No matter but if the Fishy Wildlife guys are doing their job they should be able to match up some kind of weapon to the carcass and pin this guys down hard.
Sickens me that these men stole these animals from true Sportsmen and women in Oregon that pay the fees to manage these herds to the huntable populations.

We live in a world of Liberal judges. Some are intelectuals that live in a legal book, from which make law as opposed to interpreting the law...Gun owners have been fighting these morons for a decade or two..there are people out there that would risk $2500 to shoot a sheep.