Clinton county giant?

[Iowa_Buckeye]

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

 

[Jackalope]

Hell Joe, you could have went all the way over to Florida and got you a gator with that interoperation!!! lol

Nah. Zones are clearly defined which includes state boundaries.

Here. Read the reg statement.

The "public waterway as defined by the MDEQ they're referencing is the brown line areas. The far right one is the pascagoula river. The place we got ticketed is the red dot. Note the state line doesn't end until well offshore.

Closer look.

To reiterate the regulation. "include any public waterway, as designated byMDEQ and all associated portions of each drainage that are not privately owned and have navigable
access from the designated waterway."

Is the Gulf of Mexico not an "associated drainage" of the river? Does that area not have "navigable access from the designated waterway"?


The defense was solid, if I had more time I would have faught it. There is no way a prosecutor could convince a judge that a river doesn't drain into the gulf, or that there isn't navigable acces from the designated waterway.

Instead I will expend the effort at the regulatory level to make the state clarify in the regulations with regard to coastal areas. There were six other people in that same marsh alligator hunting that night. I figure the better good is to get it clarified so they can stop writing revenue generators on their interpretation.