RE: Nailed by the Game Warden
dohcrxl,
This thread has fueled a number of responses for me. Too many, to adress them as specific replys.
I can tell from your posts that you've learned your lesson. And I also picked up on a quesiton that NO ONE has answered yet. I'm not a lawyer, so my answer may not be very useful.
1) You did wrong and you know it. Asking the buddy to pay the fine, is not an apporpriate response. Would the guy who loaned the license out in the first place pay all the fines? No, and he shouldn't. You did wrong, and you admit it. Face the fiddler.
2) Giving back to the forest is a noble offer. But I ask you; isn't paying a warden a valuable means of "returning to the forest"? I've been enlightened by some of the comments re: "what if we didn't have game wardens?" I've known quite a few over my (realtively few) years, and they're all just as human as you and I. They're good folks too. They knowingly go to the woods to serve an unpopular sevice on armed people. That takes guts.
3) I think you've run the gauntlet from a number of these replies, so without bashing you anymore, I'll move on to your question. You asked how long they could wait to bring charges. My mind defaults to the statute of limitations, and I don't know what that is for your area, or your offense. At the very least, I would guess that they could bring charges months later, if not a year. It sounds to me like the warden knew your predicatment and wanted to see how you would handle it. We all know the answer to that, so I think it would be unwise to challenge the fine, or attempt to have it reduced. If you want to respectfully ask the court what other consideration they might have, you'd be risking it, but you might get lucky. Seems like you've been in a situation like that recently, and didn't luck out. Personally, I'd write a check, and hustle home.
Thanks for man-ing up about it.