Four Wisconsin men have been convicted of crimes related to an illegal mountain lion hunt in Montana back in January 2017.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says 52-year-old Darren Johnson of Deer Park, 31-year-old David Johnson of Barnes, 53-year-old Robert Peters of Turtle Lake, and 55-year-old Steven Reindahl of Turtle Lake also were found guilty of conspiring to obstruct a federal grand jury investigation into their actions.
It was back on January 6, 2017 when the four of them were out in Mosby, Montana hunting mountain lions with their dogs. When the dogs positioned a mountain lion into a tree it was David, who didn’t have a license to hunt the animal, who shot it dead.
As they transported the animal back to Wisconsin, Darren was the one who told the other three that they needed to stick with the story that it was him who killed the animal, using his tag to lable it.
During an investigation by the USFWS about the hunt, Robert and Steven were asked to testify before a Madison-based federal grand jury, Darren reminded them to stick with their story, which Robert and Steven did. Eventually the truth came out, and Robert and Steven changed their testimony to the truth.
Federal Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker sentenced the four as follows:
-Darren would serve four years probation, pay $30,000 in fines and lose all privleges to hunt, trap and run dogs.
-David would serve three years probation, pay $25,000 in fines.
-Rober and Steven would serve two years probation, pay $5,000 in fines each, and be banned from hunting, trapping and running dogs during their probation.
All equipment used during the hunt was also confiscated, including a 2012 Ford F-250 pickup truck and the forfeit of a mountain lion skull Darren got during a 2013 hunt in Colorado that was also illegally taken.
The USFWS was assisted in their investigation by the Wisconsin DNR’s Bureau of Law Enforcement and the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.