Posted on 08/25/2011 5:13:02 AM PDT by SJackson
COEUR d'ALENE - A man charged with unlawfully shooting and killing a grizzly bear had so many supporters at his arraignment Tuesday in federal court that the judge had to move the hearing to a larger courtroom.
Even there, every seat was taken as his family, friends and neighbors, young and old, squeezed in.
federal law. Hill's charge is a misdemeanor.
Magistrate Judge Candy Dale set trial, at least for now, for Oct. 4.
Hill has declined comment. His lawyer, Marc Lyons of Coeur d'Alene, said he plans to defend Hill on the basis of self-defense and protection of family.
Following the hearing, his father, Mike Hill, of Athol, said, "This whole thing is a waste of taxpayer money."
He said his son was concerned for the safety of his children playing outside when a mother grizzly and two cubs wandered onto his property on May 8.
Jeremy Hill has six kids, ranging in age from 14 years old to 10 months old. At least five were home when the grizzly was killed, Mike Hill said.
The bears had gone after some pigs in a pen that the kids had been raising, Mike Hill said.
He said his son shot one of the bears, then called authorities to notify them of the kill. The other two bears ran off.
He said his son could have just buried the animal and not said anything to law enforcement. He said his son is being penalized for coming forward.
State Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, attended the hearing in full support of Jeremy Hill.
"The charges are simply unjust," she said following the hearing. "Hopefully common sense will prevail. It's clearly an issue of protecting the family."
She predicted that punishing someone who reported killing a grizzly will damage government efforts to protect the animals.
She said nearly $20,000 was raised by community members for Hill's defense.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho was asked about the case while appearing in Sandpoint on Tuesday.
While Labrador said he needed to be careful in dealing with the prosecutorial side of things, he did have this to say:
"Clearly, we have a problem with the ESA when situations like this happen." He later added, "We're doing everything we can to make sure this man is treated fairly."
The Boundary County commissioners on Monday said they are standing beside Hill on the charge, saying in a statement that Hill had "not only the right, but the obligation to protect his children and his family."
The commissioners said they'll be seeking help from Idaho Gov. Butch Otter and Idaho's congressional delegation to get the charge dismissed.
The charge of killing a threatened species is punishable by up to a year in prison, a maximum fine of $50,000, and up to one year of supervised release.
Always follow the 3 S’s
SHOOT!
SHOVEL!
SHUT UP!
The federal govt has no business sticking their nose into this situation. Talk about federal over reach.
Prosecutors these days are more corrupt than the criminals.
Maybe the bears are covered by Obamacare. It’s hard to tell in all of those pages of legalese.
Just when I start thinking that common sense may just be returning to people, something like this comes around. If you cannot protect your family from attack by a wild animal, then it has to be assumed that the enviro-nazi’s have permeated every facet of the nation’s government. A general house brooming is required.
Shoot, butcher, freeze, burn
We probably don't have enough bandwidth here.
LOL! Nah, it’s that unconstitutional, stupid Endangered Species Act that congress shoved down our throats years ago. More americans have been abused by that piece of garbage than most other federal abuses put together.
Dad protects his children and may face a year in prison and $50,000 fine. Stop the world.. I want off!
There... fixed it
???
bear meat??? possibly the backstraps??...Me? I shoot and eat vegetarians like deer, elk, rabbits, pheasants.
heck if your gonna break some stupid law by killing it, sell the gall bladder and paws to some asian medicine shop...then dispose of the rest and keep quiet
Amen Brother, and how much has it cost us in investigations of frogs and little fish in a construction area. Millions of dollars wasted protecting some insignificant frog from losing it’s habitat.
What kind of society have we become when we value the lives of some kids (who probably should have been aborted anyway) over cute, cuddly woodland creatures?
Good time for jury nullification.
They should reintroduce wolf packs and bears to NYC’s Central Park, and jail anybody who “harrasses” them.
I recommend the law firm of “Claude&Balls”.
ping
This is outrageous!
It should be enough that he was protecting his property (the pigs) let alone his family.
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