A few articles from the White Mt. paper that I had saved:
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LAKESIDE - Some residents near Mountain View Ranch on Porter Mountain Road are distraught and angry after an elk hunt reportedly took place very close to their homes July 26.
Residents in the area awakened that morning to the sound of gunshots. After all was said and done, a large bull elk was killed and the Arizona Game and Fish Department has been left to sort things out.
Game and Fish has issued a citation to the hunter, Mike Malik of Michigan. Malik is the owner of Paradice Hunt Club in Davison, a 1,000-acre whitetail deer-hunting region and resort.
Curt Farrier, a resident near the area where the hunt took place, said it all unfolded a quarter-mile from his home. He said he woke up around 5:15 a.m. to the sound of a gunshot. Thinking it was a drive-by shooting at first, he went back to sleep but got out of bed when he decided something wasn't right.
Neighbor Krissie Almour said a phone call woke her up at 5:30 a.m. The call came from neighbor John Babbitt, telling her not to go outside because hunters had shot an elk near her home.
"I was thinking, 'What hunters? Where are the hunters?'" she said.
Around 5:35 a.m., Almour reportedly called Farrier's house to relay the news. Farrier said while his wife talked with her, he heard more gunshots and yelled at the hunters to stop shooting because of other animals in the area. He said the elk finally went down at 6 a.m.
Farrier said during the hunt, the hunter and his outfitter were on private property.
"(The hunter is) supposed to be 440 yards away from a dwelling," he said. "Every place they took a shot was in private land."
Farrier said the first shot happened near a fence separating Mountain View Ranch from the rest of the properties in the area. Since the elk did not go down with the first shot, he said the hunter stalked it as it tried to get away. He said the hunter took the last shots near two houses.
"They got between the houses and shot," he said.
Soon afterwards, Malik, outfitter John McClendon from Cottonwood, Arizona Game and Fish and the area residents converged on the spot where the elk fell and tried to figure out how it all happened. Farrier said many of the residents on scene were those who witnessed the act with no idea of what was going on.
"These people are all watching, freaking out," he said.
Farrier said the outfitter was asked by Game and Fish if they had written permission from the residents to hunt there or if they had informed the residents beforehand and they both replied "no." Game and Fish, having reason to believe the elk was not taken lawfully, confiscated it. Farrier said the head of the elk will be sold at an auction while the meat will be given to a food bank.
Game and Fish said Malik had a special permit to hunt. Public information officer Bruce Sitko said special permits were introduced in the mid-1980s, with two initially given out per year per big game species, such as bighorn sheep, mule deer or elk. He said that the permits are either auctioned off or raffled. Malik's permit was obtained through auction.
"All of the proceeds from those permits go to management for that particular species that permit is sold for," he said.
Sitko said the Arizona Legislature recently allowed a third permit to be sold. With the permits the hunter is allowed to hunt in designated game management units, as determined species by species by the Arizona Game and Fish Department Commission. A majority of the units are open for a particular species every year, and the permit allows the hunter a yearlong pass to hunt, regardless of the time of year. Malik's permit ran from Aug. 1, 2006 to July 31, 2007.
According to Sitko, Malik was in one the designated areas, but reportedly fired too closely to occupied structures. Farrier said he talked with Malik after the hunt and was told Malik had three previous hunts in Arizona but did not shoot anything. He added that Malik said he felt bad about the whole situation.
Nevertheless, the incident has emotions running high in the area. Farrier said herds of elk are known to run around the area right in their backyard. The elk that was shot was well known to the community.
The thing that has Farrier really mad, he said, is where the elk was shot. The area is not forested, as it is just grassland with a pond in the middle. He likened hunting an elk in an open area like that to shooting in a corral.
Almour said she was angry and sad about many things regarding the incident. She felt her property rights were violated when Malik and his guide wandered onto her land. She was also saddened to learn a hunt was taking place in the same area where her husband Jeff Almour died in a plane crash more than two months earlier.
But what has Almour most upset is that the elk was advertised online. She said the hunter might have been enticed to come out to Lakeside with video of the elk, possibly taken from a resident. She said that action might have put the rest of the herd in jeopardy.
"I felt that elk was pimped out on the Internet and sold to the highest bidder," she said. "It was a blatant misuse of trust and friendship."
Babbitt said Malik contacted him via phone after seeing pictures of the elk on the Internet. He said he let Malik know where the elk was and guided him on the animal's path into the forest.
"I showed him right where the animal goes into the forest," he said. "I wanted to make sure he shot him out in the forest."
Babbitt said he went out with the rest of the residents after the incident occurred and did not go with Malik for the hunt like some alleged. He added that he was just as mad as anyone since the hunter allegedly went onto private property to hunt.
"He just didn't hunt the animal in the forest," he said. "He was too antsy, I guess. He should've gone where I showed him."
Calls to Malik were not returned by press time.
Arizona Game and Fish served Malik with a citation after conducting an investigation of the incident. Game and Fish reportedly determined the first shot from Malik took place 340 yards from Farrier's house, well within the 440-yard boundary. Game and Fish also said the second and third shots were reportedly taken from between two houses, which are only 677 feet apart.
"It's illegal to discharge a firearm within a quarter-mile of an occupied residence while taking wildlife without permission," Sitko said. The law comes under Arizona Revised Statute 17-309 A 4. It is considered a Class 2 misdemeanor, punishable by up to $750 in fines plus 80 percent in surcharges, up to four months in jail and up to two years probation.
Sitko said the investigation is open, so more charges may be pending. Farrier said it doesn't make him feel any better, knowing the hunter is a wealthy man.
"That guy's got enough money to buy his way out of it," he said.
Meanwhile, the residents feel like they are left to pick up the pieces. Farrier said the people in the area "are in such a tizzy." Not only that, he said people all over the state are learning of this incident.
"Everyone from Phoenix to Flagstaff to Prescott knows about this," he said.
Almour said there was nothing to gain from this situation.
"No one won out in the end," she said.
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Michigan man found guilty on charge stemming from elk hunt
In a Monday ruling, the Pinetop Justice Court found a Michigan hunter guilty on one of two counts of firing too close to occupied residences during a 2007 elk hunt on Porter Mountain.
The state charged Michael Malik, a long-time hunter and hunt club owner in Davison, with two counts of discharging a firearm within a quarter-mile of an occupied residence. The charges stem from a July 26, 2007, incident in which Malik hunted and killed an large bull elk well known to residents of Mountain View Ranch on Porter Mountain Road.
Many residents complained the hunt took place too close to their homes. Arizona Game and Fish confiscated the elk and issued Malik with a citation.
A bench trial was held July 31 at the justice court. Judge Pro Tem David Antonini found John McClendon, an outfitter, not guilty for guide aiding or counseling a hunter in violation.
The trial lasted over 10 hours, with Antonini taking the case under advisement at the end of the trial.
During the trial, Malik's attorney, Bruce S. Griffen of Flagstaff, tried to prove the first shot was not within a quarter-mile of any occupied residence. Afterwards, when the elk was wounded, the defense said law enforcement had authorized a salvage and euthanasia operation, no longer making it a hunt.
In the case for McClendon, local defense attorney Dirk LeGate argued his client was not a guide for the hunt by definition, since he received no financial gain from Malik's hunt.
The prosecution, led by county prosecutor Clyde Halstead, argued Malik shot too close to the homes, without permission from the homeowners. The court heard from various witnesses during the trial, including Game and Fish officers, Mountain View Ranch residents and Malik and McClendon themselves.
According to a summary published by Game and Fish, Antonini ruled Malik was not guilty with taking the first shot too close to homes. Griffen said they were able to successfully prove the location of the first shot occurred further away than from what Game and Fish indicated and well outside the quarter-mile boundary. He said McClendon, when talking to Game and Fish on the scene, misidentified the location of the first shot. He said three witnesses testified to this fact, including Malik and McClendon.
"Three people testified that Game and Fish had the wrong location," he said. "There was no witness that supported the state's version at the end of the day."
Antonini then ruled that the location of and responsibility for the second shot was indisputable and Malik was guilty of the second count. Griffen said they do not agree with the decision and are looking at appealing it.
"We will be taking further steps to try to correct that," he said.
Antonini also found McClendon not guilty on his charge because the state did not provide sufficient evidence showing he directly gained financially from the hunt.
Game and Fish Public Information Officer Bruce Sitko said they are preparing a revocation packet, a typical process for any wildlife violation.
"Once the violator has gone through the justice court, the department also has an option to take that violation to a Game and Fish commission," he said.
Sitko said Game and Fish can ask the commission for a civil fine or revocation of a license, to be compounded with the court's sentence. He said license revocations would typically be for five years, although the commission could decide to make it shorter, but any revocation would extend to other Western states because of a pact between state wildlife organizations.
"It can have some far-reaching effects," he said.
It had been more than a year between the incident occurred and the trial was finally held. Sitko said the delays came from motions made by the defense lawyers, as they would come across new information relating to the case and needed sufficient time to prepare.
Another delay came, Sitko said, when the lawyers for Malik and McClendon motioned in May that the two be tried together. He said the state was going to try the two defendants separately.
Malik is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 15.
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Malik sentenced to community service for illegally taking elk
PINETOP-LAKESIDE - Michael Malik, a Michigan man who became the center of controversy after an elk hunt on Porter Mountain last July, has been sentenced to eight hours of community service.
Malik was found guilty of firing too close to an occupied structure on Aug. 4 after a July 31 bench trial that lasted over 10 hours. The Pinetop-Lakeside Justice Court said Malik must serve the community service within 60 days. Malik must also write letters of apology to homeowners of Mountain View Ranch on Porter Mountain, where the hunt took place.
The execution of the sentence will be suspended pending the court's consideration of Malik's motion for a new trial.
Ofc. Jim Hinkel, the law enforcement program manager for the Pinetop office of Arizona Game and Fish, said the sentence handed down was "disappointing" but the department will begin their own disciplinary process. He said Malik could face a revocation of his license and a minimum civil assessment of $8,000 for the elk he killed.
"What Mr. Malik is looking at is revocation of licenses to hunt, fish or trap for up to five years," he said.
Hinkel added those revocations would not just be limited to Arizona. Since Arizona is part of a interstate wildlife violator compact, Malik could face revocations in 32 states and seven Canadian provinces, including Utah, California and New Mexico.
"If you're revoked in any one of the participating states, you're revoked in the rest of them," he said.
Hinkel said he would have liked to see the justice court hand down a tougher sentence to show other potential offenders that wildlife violations would be taken seriously. However, he said it would not affect how Game and Fish carries out their action.
"We're moving forward," Hinkel said.
TONY MANDILE
How To Hunt Coues Deer
