February 12, 2010
Man receives fine for 37 DNR violations, loses hunting license
FREMONT – A man who had blood on his hands and pants from butchering illegal deer the day officers executed a search warrant at his Winnebago County property has been fined for some of the original 37 citations he received for illegal hunting and other Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources violations.
Cory E. Bartel, 30, of Fremont, was convicted of 18 of 37 citations issued following the 2006 search of his property. The remaining 19 were dismissed but read in for sentencing purposes.
Bartel was fined a total of $5,677. Had he been convicted of all the citations the fines would have been nearly twice that amount.
In addition to the fines, Bartel’s hunting privileges are revoked for three years. But he may request reinstatement of those privileges after two years, said Winnebago County District Attorney Christian Gossett.
The citations issued to Bartel were for failing to register and tag deer, illegally possessing game animals, illegal trapping, shooting song birds, hunting turkeys with a .22 caliber rifle, possessing deer over bag limit, hunting turkeys out of season, possessing untagged turkeys, failing to register turkeys, wasting natural resources by dumping spoiled deer meat, possessing untagged deer killed by cars, taking possession of a protected bird, trapping animals by illegal methods/baiting, and taking protected wild birds.
The search of Bartel’s property produced evidence including packages of venison in his freezer bearing Bartel’s name, dates of the kills and what size animals the cuts of meat were from. Wardens conducted crosschecks to discover Bartel had not registered any deer during the period.
An informant who helped the DNR told how Bartel referred to the deer as “sliders,” for his method of sliding the illegal deer down his basement steps for butchering.
The informant may be eligible for reward money offered by the Wild Turkey Federation and other area hunting organizations, DNR Warden Jeffrey Knorr said.
Knorr is hopeful the reward will encourage others to come forward with information to help the DNR convict those who are breaking DNR laws.
Knorr characterized Bartel’s infractions as severe and blatant.
“Whatever walked and crawled on his property he felt obligated to shoot and put into his freezer,” Knorr said.