A few months ago I blogged about Troy Lee Gentry being charged with falsely registering a captive bear as being killed in the wild. Much to my surprise the charge came with a hefty penalty and I was curious to see how the popular country singer would respond.
Turns out Gentry decided to plead guilty to the charges. Actually, he decided to accept a plea deal offered by federal prosecutors. According to news reports, under the plea, the 39-year-old singer will pay a $15,000 fine, give up hunting, fishing and trapping in Minnesota for five years, and forfeit both the bear’s hide and the bow he used to shoot the animal in 2004. By accepting the plea, Gentry avoided having to go to trial.
Gentry’s attorney told reporters that his client pleaded guilty to “a simple charge having to do with improper tagging (of a game animal), and that’s all it ever was.”
But, prosecutors disagree. They maintain that Gentry and his local hunting guide, who also pleaded guilty at the same hearing to two felony charges of “helping other hunters shoot bears at illegal baiting stations,” committed a serious offense. In fact, Greenly currently faces a maximum prison sentence of five years for each count, forfeiture of all-terrain vehicles he and employees used to reach the bait stations, and a maximum fine of $400,000.
In court documents Gentry admitted he bought the bear from Greenly with the understanding they would videotape a hunt inside the bear’s enclosure, which was surrounded by an electric fence.
“Lee and I made a deal about harvesting this bear,” Gentry told the court. They also agreed to report it was killed in the wild 6 miles east of Sandstone instead of on Greenly’s property south of the town.
Gentry’s plea led to federal prosecutors agreeing to drop a felony charge of violating the Lacey Act, which authorities said bans possessing or transporting illegally obtained wildlife.
Sounds like Gentry learned his lesson.
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