timbercruiser

An acquaintence of mine told me the other day about this ticket. He carried a friend of his to south Alabama to a hunting lease he had. He walked his friend to the food plot he was to hunt, and along the way he was eating some pecans he had in his pocket. In cracking and eating the pecans there were some small pieces in the hulls that he did not dig out and there were 2 that had worm holes in them, that along with another one he accidently dropped were discarded on the road to the stand, but some of the waste was in sight of the stand. A game warden went in and after he saw the pecan waste charged the guy in the stand with baiting deer, a fine of about $450. I told him I would have taken my chances with the judge, but he said he went ahead and paid the ticket for his friend as it was he that dropped the pecan waste. His friend got mad at him, as he had never had a ticket of any kind, and he thinks it has ruined their friendship.

kevin1

Deer don't eat pecan shells, so the game warden erred, I would've dragged his ass into court.

WIbuckchaser

I would have definitely fought that one. More than likely the judge would have been asking the game warden what he was trying to prove and why the game warden was wasting his time?

David Kansas

Don't you have laws about going on to others land with out premission, I would nail the game warden and see whos ticket would stick. Here in Kansas unless you have written premission you had better stay off the land game warden or not.

driftrider

Kansas might be that way, but I know Iowa and Minnesota most certainly are not. In both places the DNR Officer can go just about anywhere he wants if he knows or suspects that there are hunters there. My brother and I got approached by a DNR officer this year in his driveway which is 1/4 mile off the road. He drove right up to where we were by our vehicles to chat with us. So I don't know about where this happened, but there are states that allow DNR Officers to go onto private land if they know hunters are there.

As far as the baiting thing, it sounds like a BS charge that he should have fought in court. It's a moot point now because he already plead guilty and paid the fine. Regarding the friendship strain; I'd say that the guy that dropped the pecans, and subsequently paid the fine even though he didn't get the ticket himself, is a stand-up guy that did the right thing. He made a simple mistake and he owned up to it the best he could by paying his friends ticket. Did his friend lose his hunting privileges because of the ticket? If not, then I think that his anger is unjustified and he'd be a fool to wreck a good friendship when the responsible party owned up and did the right thing. He should look at it this way, the pecan munching friend could have left him high and dry and made him pay his own ticket, and then he'd have just cause to be angry, but that didn't happen.

Mike

Lanse couche couche

In Illinois there is a general statement that seems to indicate that GW's are empowered to go pretty much anywhere they want on private land (although not houses) in the pursuit of their duties. Would love to know just what the lmits of this actually are.

driftrider

No law enforcement officer can go into a home without probably cause, nor can they search a home without a search warrant unless given permission. There are some exceptions based on circumstances, but a DNR officer just can't knock on your door and demand to look in your freezer just because he knows you like to hunt and wants to see if you're in possession of game you're not supposed to have. He'd be free to ask for permission to search, but under the 4th Amendment you can legally refuse and require him to get a warrant. Private land, on the other hand, falls into the same category as a driveway or front porch. Not only is it "plain sight," so discovery of evidence in plain sight isn't considered a search under the 4th Amendment because there is no "reasonable expectation of privacy", but trespassing statutes do not apply to a LEO in the lawful conduct of his duties. For a DNR officer, this includes any area where hunting, trapping, fishing or any other activity that is covered under his state's Dept. of Natural Resources (or similar) authority occurs.

Mike

Lanse couche couche

To me, a GW walking out into the middle ofmy property largely out of curiosity would be like a police officer walking around the side of my house and into my backyard for the same reason.In both instances one would think that there is a right to privacy, but i guess not.

diamondaranch

The difference in laws etc concerning this subject from state to state (or county to county) is very interesting to me.

Here in southwest Texas, we have the best game warden that this county could ever wish for.

He minds his own damned business unless we call him.

Best wishes!!

Lanse couche couche

Just came across this story. I've been surfing the net and have yet to find an instance where agame warden couldn't go on private land to check on folks that they knew were hunting there. However, the case dealt with in the link suggests that they cannot just wander property at will withoug some minimal cause.

http://morningjournal.com/articles/2008/12/18/news/mj364933.txt