Jury trial set in illegal deer possession case
A jury trial has been set for April 27 in the case of a Kansas man accused in Grand Forks County of transporting two deer heads last November that hadn't been tagged.
Robert Tuchscherer, Fort Scott, Kan., was charged with illegal possession and transport of big game, a Class A misdemeanor.
According to court records, the charge resulted after a North Dakota Highway Patrol officer stopped Tuchscherer about 7:45 p.m. Nov. 17 on Interstate 29 near Thompson, N.D. The vehicle was carrying parts of three deer, and only one deer head was tagged.
Gary Rankin, district game warden for the Game and Fish Department in Larimore, N.D., was called to the scene and reported seeing a mule deer head with a gratis tag attached and two whitetail heads that were not tagged.
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The larger whitetail head had the cape attached and was frozen, the report said; the smaller head had no cape.
In the report, Tuchscherer said he shot the mule deer on land he recently had purchased north of Medora, N.D., and that he had found the other two heads south of Rugby, N.D.
Tuchscherer said he and a hunting partner found the larger whitetail Nov. 7 in a pasture while hunting and that they caped the deer and put it in a freezer. The smaller head was found in a flax field Nov. 16.
Tuchscherer didn't have the required licenses or tags for the whitetail heads, the report said.
Court drops license charge against DL guide
A Ramsey County judge dismissed a charge against a Devils Lake man who had been accused of working as a guide or outfitter without a license.
Lonnie Olson, Ramsey County state's attorney, said the charge against Bruce Henry was dropped as part of a plea agreement. Henry said he was working for the farmer who owned the land they were hunting, and there's an exemption for farmers to guide on their land without being licensed, Olson said.
Henry also had been charged with four counts of violating the governor's fishing proclamation by culling fish and letting paid clients catch his daily limit of five walleyes, in addition to the five walleyes they each could keep, on two consecutive days while guiding in mid June.
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Known as "party fishing," the practice is illegal in North Dakota. Culling, or removing fish from a stringer or livewell in exchange for a different fish, also is illegal.
As part of the plea agreement, Judge Lee Christofferson fined Henry $500, plus $225 in court costs, on one count of violating the proclamation but suspended half the fine on condition he have no criminal violations in the next two years. Henry also was ordered to pay $100 in restitution.
The court suspended $500 fines on two additional counts of violating the proclamation and dismissed a third as part of the agreement.
Guiding or outfitting without a license is a Class A misdemeanor. The fishing charges are Class B misdemeanors.
