Bruce Gets Probation, 182 Days in Jail Suspended. Wonder What He Will Get on the Unlawful Hunting of a Protected Species

http://www.abqjournal.com/news/state/286630nm02-19-08.htm



Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Official Gets Fine, Probation

By Charles D. Brunt
Journal Staff Writer
State Department of Game and Fish Director Bruce C. Thompson was placed on probation Monday for 182 days and ordered to pay a $500 fine for shooting a deer on private land without the landowner's permission.
Lincoln County Magistrate Judge Martha M. Proctor sentenced Thompson to 182 days in jail before suspending the jail time, a court clerk said Monday from Carrizozo.
The conditions of Thompson's unsupervised probation require that he not violate any local, state or federal laws for 182 days.
Thompson, who was also ordered to pay $67 in court costs, had pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge.
He still faces a related misdemeanor count of unlawful hunting/possession of protected species, which was filed in state District Court. He has pleaded not guilty to that charge; a jury trial is set for April 21 in Carrizozo.
The charges stemmed from a Nov. 17 hunt in Lincoln County during which Thompson, who had a valid deer hunting license, shot a deer on the privately owned Diamond T Ranch.
It is illegal to hunt on private property in New Mexico without written permission from the landowner, and Thompson had not received permission to hunt on the Diamond T.
Thompson issued a news release Nov. 21 saying he used incorrect Global Positioning System coordinates during his hunt and unwittingly wound up on the privately owned ranch instead of public land.
In January, District Attorney Scot Key of Alamogordo sought dismissal of the unlawful hunting/possession charge in Magistrate Court and refiled it in District Court, citing a need to have the case heard in a court of record.
Key said Thompson's District Court case was assigned to District Judge Karen Parsons.