Iowa_Buckeye
Smartest person here
I received my first-ever wildlife violation this year. Alligator hunting in a closed area. The regulation says "the allowable hunting area is the Pascagoula river, associated drainages, and navigable waters thereof."
I came out the mouth of the Pascagoula where it drains into the gulf and then navigated back up into a coastal marsh. The officer said that since it didn't drain into the river it wasn't an associated drainage. I argued that's not what the regulation says. It clearly states (associated drainage AND navigable waters thereof" at no point did I pull, drag or leave my boat to get in here. Anyways Ole Green Jeans wrote us a ticket based on his interpretation. Since it was dealing with an alligator it's a mandatory court date.it was a minor misdemeanor, the lowest misdemeanor, basically the equivalent of not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign.
Court day comes, my buddy and I and about 50 other people of various crimes, including about 10 people bussed over from the county jail in hand and leg shackles. He starts calling names for pleas, shoplifting, domestic abuse, DUIs, gun crimes, plus whatever those guys in orange jumpsuits and shackles did but they're last.
He gets to me and I approach the podium, he reads the charge "Hunting alligators in a closed area) (he then Giggled a little) and said "What.... can you explain this" I responded "Uh explain myself or the charge your honor" "well what is this? what happened? I being me was prepared and handed him his stack of numbered and tagged papers. He was shaking his head no the whole time while I explained." I finished and he said well how do you plead. I responded "Guilty for convenience your honor" .(Because I didn't want to have to come back.) He laughed and told me that's not a real plea. Knowing my max fine was a hundred bucks I just said guilty. He reduced it to a warning, no fine, and pay court costs. Then he literally said to me. "This is why I don't hunt fish anymore, it just isn't worth it. I see this stuff on a daily basis and it's just revenue"
There were about five other DNR written violations in there that morning. NONE of them paid a fine. All reduced or thrown out. One was a couple that was swimming under an overpass but it happened to be WMA property and they didn't have their little yearly $5 WMA user permit from the state. The judge told them "Yeah they're not getting a penny from you on this" and threw it out.
I say all that to say this, Those judges got a lot of other shit to deal with, what they see as real crime stuff, they don't give a damn about some wildlife violations. This judge literally acted like the Department of natural resources was wasting the court's time with revenue generating crap. And it was pretty obvious that he didn't want anyone to plead not guilty and tie up a prosecutor on some bullcrap when they should be preparing cases against people who committed "real crimes"
Now in high-profile cases like this poaching case and the walleye tournament guys those judges are gonna get involved more so because they know everyone is watching. But at the end of the day, they're still hamstrung by the allowable punishments under the law. And the sad reality is, out of all the stuff they deal with on a daily basis, wildlife violations are a victimless crime to them. They're not gonna throw some kid in jail with a bunch of what they consider to be real criminals over a dead deer or two.
Hell Joe, you could have went all the way over to Florida and got you a gator with that interoperation!!! lol
