Article published November 21, 2008
2 men in court for poaching Big Boy
Two Toledo men have been charged with a laundry-list of violations in four area municipal courts in connection with the poaching last month of a well-recognized white-tailed deer in Side Cut Metropark.
The deer - a large-antlered, 15-point buck known to some Side Cut fans as Big Boy and to others as Stickers, probably was killed in the early hours of Oct. 9, according to Steve Thomson, a wildlife investigator for Ohio Wildlife District 2.
"I've had more people call me about this particular deer that any I have worked on," the investigator said. He added that a state wildlife biologist aged the deer at 8 1/2 to 9 1/2 years old, which is very old for a deer.
"Very few deer make it to 4 1/2, let alone 8 1/2 or 9 1/2," Thomson said. "His teeth were worn down pretty good." The buck's great antler size, moreover, puts it in a special restitution class if the men charged in the case are convicted.
Last week two southern Ohio men convicted of poaching a similar-size buck in Ross County were ordered by Chillicothe Municipal Judge Thomas E. Bunch to share restitution of nearly $13,000 - in addition to court fines and other penalties. It was the first trophy-deer case processed under a new state law that upgrades values for all classes of wildlife.
Trophy-size bucks command the highest figures, largely because the eager market for huge sets of antlers, Thomson said. "Any [commercial] propagator could sell such antlers [from a captive-raised buck] for $10,000," the investigator said. Formerly, all deer were valued at just $400 regardless of age or sex.The men charged are Justin Angles, 20, of 2850 1/2 Scottwood Ave., and Daniel Mahoney, 20, of 2801 Merrimac Blvd.
Angles and Mahoney are charged in Maumee Municipal Court with illegal taking or possessing of a wild animal, and possession of a deer or deer parts illegally. Angles also is charged with falsifying a deer tag and Mahoney with aiding another in a violation.
Each charge is a third-degree misdemeanor carrying a penalty on conviction of up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail.
The men are scheduled to appear in court Monday. They also face charges there by Toledo Area Metroparks rangers for criminal trespassing in Side Cut during closed hours.
Angles also faces a charge in Bowling Green Municipal Court of providing false information to a deer check-station. The buck was checked in for a permanent metal kill-tag at Mike's Party Mart in Bowling Green, Thomson said. Angles is scheduled to appear there also on Monday.
On Nov. 28 Angles is to appear in Lima Municipal Court on a charge of purchasing a hunting license without having first obtained a hunter education/safety certificate. The latter charge, unlike the others, carries a maximum penalty on conviction of a $250 fine and 30 days in jail.
Mahoney also faces the same license falsification charge, but in Sylvania Municipal Court. The different court jurisdictions are related to where the licenses were purchased.
State law requires all first-time hunters to first successfully pass a hunter education/safety course before purchasing a hunting license. New hunters may purchase only a temporary, apprentice license to go afield without passing a training course but only if accompanied by a licensed adult.
This is not the first major deer-poaching case investigated at Side Cut Metropark, where deer are plentiful and where bucks often may grow old, large and highly visible.
In 2001 a Toledo man was convicted of possessing a huge set of antlers from a buck known as Sidecut Sam, the decomposed carcass of which had been found, minus its head and antlers, on Blue Grass Island. No one was charged with the actual killing of the deer in that case, however. The carcass showed evidence of a bullet wound.
In 2006, a Toledo man was convicted of poaching an eight-point buck at Side Cut with a crossbow. Both sets of antlers from those bucks were donated by the state to the Friends of Side Cut Metropark, which has displayed the mounted antlers in the well-secured Lamb Center in the park.
Investigator Thomson said that the current case developed in this way:
The 15-point buck apparently was killed between 12:30 and 1 a.m. on Oct. 9, and turned in later at a deer-check station in Bowling Green.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife soon began receiving calls from the public after a photograph of a hunter with the familiar buck was posted on the state wildlife Web site, ohiodnr.com. "He posted the picture and that's how we started hearing.
"The phone started ringing. We got e-mails, too," said Thomson. "Some people said that they had been photographing that buck for seven years." Another photograph of the hunter and the buck also appeared on another Web site, but Thomson said that after a few days both electronic photos were pulled. "That took some doing."
The investigator tracked down the tag-owner's identity at the check station and subsequently interviewed the now-accused men. "They just had a total lie about how they harvested it." The men then switched their story, saying that they had been driving around looking at deer and found the buck dead, a road-kill, in the park.
"There was no evidence of it being road-killed," Thomson said. "It's not a road-kill."
In any case, the story led to the falsification charge because state law does not allow removal of a road-killed deer from the scene without first obtaining a possession slip from a state wildlife officer or from a law enforcement agent, such as a park ranger, sheriff's deputy, or state trooper.
A deer permit may be used only for temporarily tagging a legally hunted animal. In Ohio each deer killed by hunting must be checked in and a metal possession tag attached. Even so, Thomson said, "over the years [poachers] think if they can get that metal tag, they're home free."
After checking in the deer in Bowling Green, Thomson said, the accused individuals "showed the deer around," including at the Bass Pro store in Rossford, in addition to posting a photograph on the state Web site.
"We have witnesses there," the investigator said of the store scene. "They definitely picked the wrong deer." He encouraged the public to continue to report suspected poaching, either by the toll-free state hot-line, 1-800-POACHER, or via e-mail at ohiodnr.com.
Scott Carpenter, a Metroparks spokesman, said that the parks "are grateful for the fast action on the part of the Ohio Division of Wildlife. People have a particularly bitter taste about poaching."
Alaina Meister, president of Friends of Side Cut Metropark, agrees. "With the size of the deer herds in Ohio and Michigan, I find it ridiculous that these poachers take the easy way out by hunting in a metropark. Obviously, 'hunter' does not always mean 'sportsman.'•"
To which investigator Thomson adds: "This deer was a celebrity. It was stolen from the public. They had to pick this one that so many people enjoyed."
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