Post by chezz on Jun 24, 2011 13:18:42 GMT -5
www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x2069920489/Fallin-Skies-hunter-gets-13-months-100K-fine
Fallin’ Skies video star Jeffrey Foiles will serve 13 months in jail and pay $100,000 in fines after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to two misdemeanor charges related to violation of federal wildlife laws.
Foiles, 54, a professional waterfowl hunter and call maker from Pleasant Hill, in Pike County, was facing a 23-count indictment.
Foiles said little in court Thursday afternoon except to answer, “Yes, sir” when U.S. Magistrate Byron Cudmore asked him if he did the things listed in the plea agreement.
Foiles also agreed to serve a year of supervised release and to give up his hunting and guiding privileges for two years following his release from jail, and to make public service announcements admitting wrongdoing and encouraging others to observe wildlife laws.
In addition, his business, the Fallin’ Skies Strait Meat Duck Club LLC, entered guilty pleas to two felony charges through Foiles’ attorney, Steven Beckett of Urbana.
Beckett acknowledged that the club unlawfully sold wildlife through illegal guided hunts and that it falsified records.
Foiles pleaded guilty to unlawful sale of wildlife in violation of the Lacey Act and unlawful taking of migratory game birds in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The illegal acts he admitted to include:
* Participating or guiding hunts where participants routinely shot more than their limit of ducks 15 times between 2003 and 2007.
* On Dec. 7, 2007, he hunted both during the morning and afternoon with a group of hunters who killed 39 ducks, nine in excess of the sum of the hunters’ individual daily bag limits.
* On Nov. 24, 2007, Foiles and two others killed at least 22 mallards, 10 in excess of their combined daily bag limits. The practice, known as “party hunting,” is illegal.
* During the hunt, Foiles is heard on videotape talking about shooting the bag limit of a person who was present but not hunting.
* The plea agreement states that false records were kept and that Foiles knew the behavior was wrong.
“The defendant contacted hunters and obtained their name and license information, which he then recorded (or instructed others to record) in the Club’s records as if those hunters had killed birds on that day when in fact they had not,” the agreement says.
Formal sentencing for Foiles is set for Sept. 21, but he still has to answer to wildlife charges in Canada as well.
In the U.S. plea agreement, Foiles also agreed to similar violations of wildlife laws in Canada, including a hunt in October 2004 where he exceeded his own personal bag limit by 16 ducks.
Illegal hunts often were included in Foiles’ Fallin’ Skies video series.
Beckett asked the court to allow Foiles to be able to travel to Canada if necessary but told Cudmore the case might be resolved by video-conferencing.
Fallin’ Skies video star Jeffrey Foiles will serve 13 months in jail and pay $100,000 in fines after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to two misdemeanor charges related to violation of federal wildlife laws.
Foiles, 54, a professional waterfowl hunter and call maker from Pleasant Hill, in Pike County, was facing a 23-count indictment.
Foiles said little in court Thursday afternoon except to answer, “Yes, sir” when U.S. Magistrate Byron Cudmore asked him if he did the things listed in the plea agreement.
Foiles also agreed to serve a year of supervised release and to give up his hunting and guiding privileges for two years following his release from jail, and to make public service announcements admitting wrongdoing and encouraging others to observe wildlife laws.
In addition, his business, the Fallin’ Skies Strait Meat Duck Club LLC, entered guilty pleas to two felony charges through Foiles’ attorney, Steven Beckett of Urbana.
Beckett acknowledged that the club unlawfully sold wildlife through illegal guided hunts and that it falsified records.
Foiles pleaded guilty to unlawful sale of wildlife in violation of the Lacey Act and unlawful taking of migratory game birds in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The illegal acts he admitted to include:
* Participating or guiding hunts where participants routinely shot more than their limit of ducks 15 times between 2003 and 2007.
* On Dec. 7, 2007, he hunted both during the morning and afternoon with a group of hunters who killed 39 ducks, nine in excess of the sum of the hunters’ individual daily bag limits.
* On Nov. 24, 2007, Foiles and two others killed at least 22 mallards, 10 in excess of their combined daily bag limits. The practice, known as “party hunting,” is illegal.
* During the hunt, Foiles is heard on videotape talking about shooting the bag limit of a person who was present but not hunting.
* The plea agreement states that false records were kept and that Foiles knew the behavior was wrong.
“The defendant contacted hunters and obtained their name and license information, which he then recorded (or instructed others to record) in the Club’s records as if those hunters had killed birds on that day when in fact they had not,” the agreement says.
Formal sentencing for Foiles is set for Sept. 21, but he still has to answer to wildlife charges in Canada as well.
In the U.S. plea agreement, Foiles also agreed to similar violations of wildlife laws in Canada, including a hunt in October 2004 where he exceeded his own personal bag limit by 16 ducks.
Illegal hunts often were included in Foiles’ Fallin’ Skies video series.
Beckett asked the court to allow Foiles to be able to travel to Canada if necessary but told Cudmore the case might be resolved by video-conferencing.
