August 27, 2011
From Chron.com
ANDPOINT, Idaho (AP) — A northern Idaho man has been fined $1,000 for poaching a pair of white-tailed deer.
The Bonner County Daily Bee reports (http://bit.ly/nmcN18 ) 41-year-old Albert H. Nichols Jr., of Priest River, also lost his hunting privileges for two years during his sentencing earlier this week in 1st District Court.
Nichols was charged with two felonies after a state police investigation, in which officers posed as horn collectors. Nichols eventually pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors and was sentenced Tuesday by Judge Barbara Buchanan.
Nichols says he’s unemployed during the winter and killed the deer in 2009 to feed his family.
The case was transferred Buchanan’s courtroom after a previous judge remarked at a May hearing that there shouldn’t be restrictions on hunting white-tail deer, saying they’re so plentiful “they’re like rats.”