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Delisting & Taking Peregrines from the Wild
Elaine L:
I expect you are right, Alison. In my expererience, very few people get even close to the maximum penalty. So, I wonder what the minimum penalty is? Typically, it is only a few hundred dollars, and this is all the suffering these barbarians ever have to deal with.
Alison:
Two guilty of removing falcons from cliffside nests
GOLD BEACH – Two of three Oregon men indicted by a Curry County grand jury for illegally taking young peregrine falcons from nests from the headlands of Port Orford have been convicted and are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11. The third has asked for a jury trial.
Bert J. Loessberg, 53, Eugene, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to felony first-degree theft and a wildlife law violation in a plea bargain which saw a second wildlife law violation, two criminal trespass charges and a charge of harassing wildlife dismissed.
Judge Jesse Margolis told Loessberg that the maximum sentence for the theft conviction is five years in prison and $125,000 fine and the maximum sentence for the wildlife violation, unlawfully removing a peregrine falcon from its natural habitat, is one year in jail and a $6,250 fine.
Margolis asked if there was a legal excuse for what he did. Loessberg’s attorney, Robert Schrank, replied: “No legal excuse. There was a valid permit that was never used.”
Wayne A. Skankey, 51, Beaverton, pleaded guilty on Sept. 25 of first-degree theft as a misdemeanor and criminal trespass.
Both Loessberg and Skankey are scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 11.
Clinton Paul Rand, 35, Terrebone, pleaded not guilty to all charges and a three-day trial was scheduled to begin April 13.
Rand’s attorney, Jim Gardner, asked for trial to be set but to allow negotiations to continue until the Dec. 11 sentencing for the other two, but Margolis refused.
The judge said that under the court’s rules, once the pleas were entered trial would be scheduled and Rand would face a jury on all charges or plead guilty to them.
“We’ve done a lot of attempts to negotiate,” Gardner said and entered not guilty pleas and asked for the trial dates.
The three were indicted on charges of felony first-degree theft, the theft of a peregrine falcon, removed from habitat, on May 30. The habitat is reportedly about 30 to 40 feet down a 200 foot cliff.
The three were also charged with three Class A misdemeanors, including removal of wildlife in violation of permit, failure to make timely notice to ODFW of intent to make a nest entry and harassing wildlife.
They were also charged with two counts each of second degree criminal trespass for entering two properties on King Street in Port Orford to get access to the falcons.
The three were arraigned on Aug. 31.
Similar charges against Zayne J. Lees, 60, Powell Butte, were dismissed in court by Curry County District Attorney Everett Dial on Sept. 11.
http://www.currypilot.com/20091125114276/News/Local-News/Two-guilty-of-removing-falcons-from-cliffside-nests
I'd like to see them get the maximum penalty -- but of course it won't happen.
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