Confusion about state rules for group hunting have criminal consequences

KEOSAUQUA - Law enforcement officers have charged a southeast Iowa outfitter with illegally providing resident any-sex deer tags to non-resident hunters who paid up to $3,500 each for guided hunts.

The case highlights the potential for misinterpretation and abuse of the state's party deer hunting rules, which under certain circumstances permit residents and non-residents to tag each other's deer.

Brenton Clark, 34, faces four counts of unlawful commercialization of wildlife, five counts of possessing other people's deer tags, four counts of unlawful possession and transportation of buck deer and unlawfully hunting of deer with a mobile radio. His wife, Rachel Clark, 34, faces three counts of possessing the deer tag of another person.

The Department of Natural Resources is also seeking $120,000 in damages for deer that were illegally taken in 2012 and 2013. Officials said 11 deer were seized during the investigation, which is ongoing.

DNR law enforcement supervisor Jeff Swearngin said the illegal provision of resident any-sex deer tags allows out-of-state hunters to cheat the lottery system used to assign deer tags. 'In effect, they are stealing deer that belong to Iowans,” he said.

With Iowa's well deserved reputation for excellent deer hunting, non-resident demand for licenses exceeds the available quota, said DNR Law Enforcement Bureau Chief Mark Sedlmayr, who estimated that an out-of-state applicant would get an Iowa archery tag every third year and a shotgun license every other year.

'We limit the numbers so we don't over-harvest the deer. Some people just can't wait their turn,” he said.

A search warrant issued Dec. 20. 2013, authorizing officers to search the Clarks' premises in rural Keosauqua, provides insights into the case against the Clarks.

An affidavit filed by DNR Conservation Officer Chris Flynn, who covers Jefferson and Van Buren counties, stated he received a phone call from Cory Hill, a North Carolina police officer and a client of the Clarks, who alleged that Clark was committing illegal acts to help clients bag deer.

Hill stated that Clark advised him and three other North Carolina police officers, members of the same party, to purchase easily obtainable antlerless deer tags and that he would provide the harder-to-get buck tags for harvested antlered deer.

Hill said Clark told them not to move any harvested buck until he arrived to tag it, according to the affidavit, which further stated that Clark was never near them then they hunted.

Hill said two of his companions shot bucks that Clark tagged with resident any-deer tags, the affidavit stated.

One of the hunters, Benjamin M. King, has pleaded guilty to unlawful transportation of a buck deer and another poaching charge, according to the DNR.

Another affidavit stated than an undercover federal agent, who had contacted Clark in June 2013 to book a guided hunt, said Clark told him that his approximately 30 hunters in 2012 had an 87 percent kill rate with an average antler score of 162 5/8 on the Boone & Crockett scale. Clark told the agent that a guided hunt costs $3,500.

When the agent told Clark that he had not secured an any-sex license, Clark allegedly assured him that he could provide a buck tag, and they arranged for a guided hunt from Dec. 6 to 11, 2013.

On Dec. 11, the covert agent killed a buck that guide Tom Bromell tagged with a license belonging to Mark Kraft of Fairfield, according to the affidavit. The agent stated that of the six bucks killed at Clark's lodge during the first shotgun season, only one client was properly licensed to harvest an antlered deer. The other five were tagged with transportation tags provided by Brenton Clark, the agent said.

Iowa law states that during the first and second regular gun seasons, 'anyone present in the hunting party may tag a deer with a tag issued in that person's name.” The law was intended to accommodate far-flung friends and relatives who gather in Iowa for the shotgun deer seasons - not out-of-state outfitter clients who fail to secure non-resident any-sex tags through legally prescribed means, DNR officials say.

Both Swearngin and Sedlmayr said illegal tagging is a common practice, even among Iowans.

A typical example, Swearngin said, would involve a hunter who shoots a buck that turns out to have less impressive antlers than initially thought. 'He calls a friend to bring out a tag for it and he keeps hunting,” he said.

Clark said he intends to fight the charges in court.

'We didn't break the law as far as we knew. The only breakdown was my misunderstanding that the person who bought the tag had to put it on,” he said.