Hunter who shot piebald may inspire change
BY SHERI McWHIRTER
smcwhirter@record-eagle.com
INDIAN RIVER -- John Ingersoll had no idea that shooting a rare "piebald" deer would lead to years of battles with state wildlife officials and some of his neighbors.
The Indian River resident's case is the catalyst for a proposed change in Michigan hunting laws that would remove protection for albino and other genetically mutated all-white deer.
The Natural Resources Commission will consider the proposal Thursday in Lansing.
The state's about-face is good policy, Ingersoll believes, but it doesn't go far enough, and doesn't account for the thousands of dollars he lost in a lawsuit he hoped would clear his name.
"I feel the reason they changed the law is to throw me a bone and hope that I'll go away," he said.
In December 2004, Ingersoll shot a predominantly white deer while hunting in Emmet County and took it to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources field office in Indian River.
His eight-point buck had brown eyes and patches of brown fur, by definition a piebald deer, not an albino or all-white deer, a fact later confirmed by DNR scientists.
Not everyone would kill a white deer, Ingersoll acknowledged, but he believed he had the legal right to do so and he wanted the trophy. A full body mount of the animal resides at an in-law's house.
News of Ingersoll's kill quickly spread, and the loss of the unusual creature distressed some local folks. Some wrote letters to newspapers to complain about him killing an albino deer.
And in Michigan it's a crime to kill an albino deer -- unless state wildlife officials agree to the law change this week.
The allegations that he'd killed a protected deer prompted Ingersoll to file a defamation lawsuit in Cheboygan County against seven area residents who publicly made that accusation.
Two DNR officials -- retired Lt. Jeff Gaither and Sgt. Greg Drogowski -- testified in lawsuit depositions that Ingersoll killed an albino, after all.
Ingersoll's lawsuit then was thrown out of court, and he was ordered to pay the defendants' legal costs. He since spent thousands more trying to prove he didn't commit a crime.
Ingersoll wants DNR officials charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and violating his constitutional rights, he said.
Drogowski said there's a biological explanation for the situation and why the state didn't charge Ingersoll with a crime for killing a protected albino deer.
The deer was albino at one point, proven by earlier photographs that showed the deer with the same antler configuration. During the rut, the animal stained portions of its fur brown by rubbing trees and urinating on its legs, making it piebald when Ingersoll shot it, Drogowski said.
"We believe that was an albino or an all-white deer, but because it was stained brown, it made it legal for him to shoot," he said.
Ingersoll is appealing the dismissal of his defamation lawsuit, said his Traverse City attorney, Jonathan Moothart.
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