Poaching- one of stiffest sentences ever in Montana

idahonative

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Dean Ruth, of Seeley lake was sentenced to 20 YEARS in prison (15 suspended, $19,000 in restitution, and never allowed to hunt or accompany anyone on a hunt for the rest of his life. The story:

The jury box was filled with antlers of the animals Dean and Renita Ruth were guilty of illegally killing when they came to learn their sentences Thursday.
"You're not even a slob hunter," Missoula District Judge John Henson told Dean Ruth as he pronounced the sentence. "You're simply a killer of wildlife."
Henson ordered Dean Ruth directly to prison to begin five years of a 20-year sentence on four felony counts of possessing illegally taken wildlife. Fifteen years were suspended.
Dean Ruth also was banned for life from hunting, fishing, possessing any kind of hunting weapon (including bows and black-powder rifles) and even accompanying other hunters.
Renita Ruth got a five-year suspended sentence on one charge of felony possession of illegally taken wildlife and six months suspended on one misdemeanor charge of assisting an unqualified person obtain a Montana hunting license. She and her husband were also ordered to share restitution of $19,300 for 41 illegally killed game animals.
Renita Ruth also had her hunting and fishing privileges suspended for the duration of her sentence.
The Seeley Lake couple was initially charged in state court with a combined 12 felony and 31 misdemeanor charges involving the poaching of game animals over more than a decade. Dean Ruth was also convicted of three federal felony poaching charges last October and one poaching charge in Pennsylvania in April 2003. The charges all stemmed from a search of their Woodworth Road home in November 2002.
Neither of the Ruths made a statement Thursday. But family friends who testified for Dean Ruth claimed he was a talented mechanic and a quiet but generous neighbor.
"It's a shame there's not more people here to back him," said Dominic Casano, who worked with Ruth on excavating jobs. "They didn't know his name."
Game wardens who led the investigation of the Ruths presented a much different impression.
"This was serial poaching," Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Warden Sgt. Joe Jaquith testified at the sentencing hearing. "This was as hardcore as it gets."
Jaquith and Warden Capt. Jeff Darrah told of finding walls covered with antler mounts when they searched the Ruths' trailer home. They also spoke of a shooting table in the Ruths' living room aimed out a window at a field strewn with hay and grain, a rifle with a homemade silencer, and piles of photographs of the Ruths with family and friends displaying trophy kills. The photographs were later matched with many of the antler racks seized in the home search, Jaquith said.
About 20 of those racks, along with the silencer and two of the Ruths' rifles, were on display in the courtroom Thursday.
The Ruths' trailer home sits on a major wildlife corridor between the Blackfoot-Clearwater Wildlife Management Area and the Bob Marshall Wilderness.
The investigation turned up remains of more than 100 trophy-quality deer, elk, moose, bear, antelope and other animals. The wardens also testified about seeing four-wheeler trails leading from the Ruths' home into woods, and vehicles equipped with spotlights for night hunting.
"I would say they've killed several lifetimes' worth of game," Darrah said of the Ruths. "I've only harvested four legal elk in 19 years. Dean Ruth has harvested enough elk for 10 guys' lifetimes."
Dean Ruth's attorney, Dustin Chouinard, pleaded for a suspended sentence for his client because the crimes were considered nonviolent. Keeping him out of prison would also allow Ruth to support his wife and three teenage children, and pay restitution. While the case has been pending, Ruth has completed training to be an arc welder and could earn as much as $26 an hour. The Ruths had been living on about $15,000 a year previously, Chouinard said.
Henson, however, decided to add a personal statement to his judgment describing his disgust with Ruth's actions. He noted that sportsmen's organizations have been working hard to improve the image of hunting, and a poaching case like this reinforces the opinions of hunting opponents.
"You were not killing solely because you needed the meat," Henson said. "You were simply killing for pleasure and for profit. You continue to deny any true accountability or true guilt.
"We have a tradition and a privilege of hunting that's passed from generation to generation," Henson went on. "You have not only violated the rules of the hunt, but these many laws."
Deab Ruth was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs after Henson declared his sentence. His family declined to speak to reporters.
FWP chief of law enforcement Jim Kropp said he was pleased with the sentence.
"We fully concur with the judge's view of this," Kropp said. "Anyone with a passion for wildlife has to consider this a major victory."
 
I wonder, does he like grape jelly or strawberry?? Paybacks are a real **#$^!


?America is a great country, the harder you work the luckier you get.?
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five_point_buck
AKA Larry Pasero Jr.
 
Lock that bastard up! I can barely stand to read through stories like that...makes the blood start to boil!!!!
 
But somebody that has 10 dwis was set free on $200 bail so he can put your wife and children in danger. Forget your family, save the wildlife.
 
udderdelite,

You failed to remember what was being discussed while you where spewing ignorance via your keyboard. Justice served in a poaching case has nothing to do with injustice elsewhere in the world. Because we are discussing wildlife here does not mean we are ignoring our families. Do you condone poaching, did you not think before your post, or are you just lacking a brain?
 
Mr. 2 post boy
I am saying that wildlife is not important when it comes to my two boys.
I dont see anybody going crazy when a guy gets off on running a meth lab or a repeat dwi offender is set free on bail, but everybody jerks off on their keyboard when a poacher does 20 YEARS for poaching. Arent your priorities out of order when you care more for wildlife than human life?
 
This is not a sight about meth labs or dwi offenders, thus, on this sight no one "jerks off" on their keyboards about such things. The topic was that of the sentence laid down for laws that were broken as they pertain to wildlife. If you would like to see people "going crazy" on their keyboards about DWI and Meth Labs then log onto a site that discusses drug enforcement. If you want to discuss hunting, wildlife and related issues, then this is not a bad place to do so. Just bring your gray matter with you to the keyboard and stay on the topic at hand. Don't imply that because we discuss wildlife, that wildlife is the most important thing in our lives.
udderdelite, either you don't get it or you empathize with the previously mentioned poacher.
 
The jail time is a shame!

5 years jail time is a shame! It will mostly affect his children by loosing his financial support sure the guy is a dumba$$, but hey should have given him much larger fines and kept him out of jail to pay for them. I for one don't want my tax dollars to pay for his inn keeping or welfare to support his kids and wife
 
RE: The jail time is a shame!

Damn lucky it isn't more!!!. This is exactly what needs to be done with all willfull poachers. They shouldn't just let him sit in jail he should have to work for the state game department in any capacity they deam fit. At the very least be put to work for the state picking up litter on the freeways....everyday of his sentance.
 
RE: The jail time is a shame!

WELL

HERES WHERE I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH S.O.B.'S LIKE THIS!!!

19,300 SOUNDS LIKE ALOT OF MONEY,BUT DIVIDE IT BY 150 OR 200 OR EVER HOW MANY TROPHY ANIMALS HE TOOK ILLEAGALLY(I GUARANTEE YOU THEY DON'T KNOW ABOUT ALL OF THEM!!!) AND YOU'LL SEE IT'S NOTHING MORE THAN A SLAP IN OUR FACE,WHO KNOWS HOW MANY ANIMALS THIS S.O.B. TOOK IN HIS DAY???,SOME PEOPLE LIKE THIS WILL TAKE THEIR CHANCES!!!

WHAT AMAZES ME ABOUT STORIES LIKE THESE IS:IT ONLY TOOK THE F&G SEVERAL YEARS TO CATCH THEM!!!

THEY KNEW FOR QUITE SOME TIME IT WAS HAPPENING!!!

I SAY GUT SHOOT THE LOWLIFE BASTARD AND LET HIM SUFFER,BUT THEN AGAIN I'M NOT VERY NICE!!!

TO KNOCK ENOUGH MONEY OUT OF HIM TO REPLACE THE GAME HE DESTROYED JUST WON'T WORK,HE COULDN'T REPLACE IT NO WAY IN HELL!!!

THE ONLY bobcat THINKING ONE OF THESE DAYS THEY WILL CATCH A POACHER BEFORE 100-200 TROPHY ANIMALS ARE DEAD!!!
 
RE: The jail time is a shame!

I Think jail time is the way to go with the low lifes. Too many poacher look at fines as just a cost of doing busniess.

Antlerradar
 

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