[HAMMER]

Here is the Omaha World Herald story on it.


Game-law violations mean end for guide
BY DAVID HENDEE
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER


LINCOLN — A hunting guide may leave his rural Nebraska home only for work, medical care and church during the next 12 months, a federal judge said Monday.

The home curfew was a special condition U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf placed on Paul R. Payton of Lewiston in sentencing him for violating federal game laws.

Kopf ordered no fine but sentenced Payton to five years' probation and ordered him to pay half of nearly $13,000 in reimbursement to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the cost of the investigation.

Payton also must contribute $15,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and $5,000 to Raptor Recovery Nebraska.

His co-defendant in the case, Kent Hippen of Virginia, Neb., received a similar sentence last week. They operated Nebraska Trophy Whitetails, a guiding and outfitting business.

The men were charged with turkey-hunting violations but were part of a larger pattern of similar abuses of game laws, according to federal reports. They were indicted after a two-year covert investigation, known as Operation Stateline.

They pleaded guilty in February to felony violations of a federal law that prohibits guides from helping clients illegally kill wildlife.

According to court records, Hippen took an out-of-state client to a Nebraska field along the Nebraska-Kansas border in April 2003. The hunter killed three wild turkeys. The Nebraska limit was one, but Kansas had a two-turkey limit.

Hippen put a Nebraska tag on one bird and Kansas tags on the others, making it appear that the client had shot one turkey in Nebraska and two in Kansas. Payton admitted knowing about the scheme.

Presenting evidence in February, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alan Everett said the guides took undercover federal agents and others on a number of illegal hunts in Gage, Jefferson, Johnson and Pawnee Counties in Nebraska and Marshall County, Kan.

Payton's probation sentence prohibits him from any form of hunting, guiding and outfitting. Fishing is permitted. As a convicted felon, he can't possess a firearm. Payton also must perform community service.

Payton, who is in his mid-50s, made a brief apology to the court.

"I'm sorry, your honor," he said.