the officers disclosed their jobs to the couple, even encouraging the couple to Google the officers, said Andrew Halverson, a spokesman for the wildlife department’s law enforcement division. The couple joked that they could not find any information online about the officers, and continued talking, Mr. Halverson said. […] The passengers also showed the officers the skull of an endangered sea turtle they were smuggling in a carry-on bag during the flight.
The day after the flight, officers arrived to execute a search warrant at the couple’s home in Chico, Calif., and found Mr. Fitzpatrick and Ms. Price processing a deer they had hunted illegally that day, the agency said. Deer season was over, and the couple had no deer tags, which California requires in addition to an annual hunting license to hunt big game species.
Officers also found mountain lion claws, taxidermied animals including a ringtail cat and a barn owl, an illegally hunted spike buck and several illegally hunted deer with tagging violations, the agency said. Ringtail cats are a protected species in California, and mounted raptors like the barn owl are illegal to possess without state and federal permits.
Bragged about their crimes to specialized cops who had already identified themselves as such, with evidence on hand, and still only $1,000 each.
That means that violating all of these laws really just costs $1,000, and only if you get caught.
Fines as penalties are solely to keep the lower classes in line. If the law were to be applied equally to all, fines would be a percentage of your gross income as reported by the IRS.
They would be required to pay twice the market value for the thing that was hunted illegally. Somehow I think the price would be way more.
A tree being killed is valued at 3 times its worth so an animal should be more. I’d say 5 times its value at least.
Yeah, that’s simply the price of hunting those particular animals, with the caveat that they don’t even have to pay it if they don’t get caught.
These particular offenders were slapped with a year of probation where they can’t legally hunt at all, but for people who make a habit of hunting illegally, that’s not much of a deterrent.
That’s pretty cheap for a sea turtle.
I might go pick one up tbh.
“and only if you” openly admit it. Can you imagine what a plea deal looks like if prosecution isn’t a slam dunk case?
“We don’t admit any wrong, but here’s a donation to the officers benevolent organization.”
That’s not a fine, that’s a tax.
They paid in total $2100 plus a revoke of there hunting license