Behind the Badge - The Barnes County Poaching Case (2004)
The Barnes County Poaching Case
District Game Warden Corey Erck
Some people get very nostalgic over anniversaries.
I am not necessarily one of those people.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand their importance and I am sure to remember things like my wedding anniversary.
Recently, I realized that this November marks a some-what dubious anniversary.
It will be 20 years since I stumbled into what became known as the Barnes County deer case.
This case started on a Tuesday evening in the middle of deer season in November 2004.
I was home from a routine day of working when I received a call from the Report All Poachers hotline.
The caller had witnessed two men in a pick-up shoot a deer out the window of the truck.
They immediately drove out into the field and tossed the deer in the back and sped off.
The caller said he was sure the deer had not been tagged.
Most importantly he was able to get the license plate number when they drove back onto the road.
The vehicle came back to a retired farmer that lived in Sanborn, North Dakota.
I learned that his farm was southwest of where he currently lived, and his adult son was currently living on the farm.
I requested assistance from the Barnes County Sheriff’s Department and a deputy agreed to go to the farm while I went to Sanborn and visited with the owner of the truck.
I went to the house in Sanborn and the man was home and we spoke about the incident that happened earlier and he assured me that the deer was tagged.
He also agreed to take me and show me the deer that was at the farm.
When we arrived, the deputy had already discovered that there were deer in one of the buildings on the farm.
A lot of deer.
I called my neighboring game warden who was stationed in LaMoure at the time.
I told him I was dealing with a bunch of untagged deer and needed help and asked that he come to the farm as quick as he could.
Throughout what turned into a long night, we did our best to sort out what we were dealing with.
I spoke at length with the man who had been reported shooting the deer earlier in the evening and the other warden spoke with the son.
A long list of names was compiled of people who had deer hanging in the barn and people who had shot deer that were already processed.
When we were done that evening, we had about 30 deer that had never been tagged, six whole carcasses hung from the rafters, and nearly two dozen heads and hides still laying on the floor of the barn and several freezers packed full of deer meat.
There was a list of over a dozen people that we were told had been part of the “hunting party.”
After that initial night at the farm the work was just beginning.
There were suspects that lived in the Sanborn and Valley City area but also people in Fargo, Wahpeton and Minnesota all of whom needed to be spoken with.
Most of the wardens that worked the southeast region at the time were tasked with completing interviews of all these people as soon as possible.
I put in many hours of work with the Barnes County State’s Attorney.
In the end we laid charges on those that we could prove had killed deer that were never tagged.
There were a few court battles.
We prevailed and, in the end, all nine of the people charged pled guilty.
The father and son were originally charged with 30 counts each for unlawful take or possession of a big game animal.
As part of their plea agreement, they were sentenced to pay $1,300 in fines and fees, serve a two-year suspension of hunting and fishing privileges, and mandated to take a hunter safety class.
The other seven people had a total of nine charges against them and were given a total of $3,600 in fines and fees and eight years of hunting and fishing license suspensions.
All the deer was seized and donated to a food pantry.