If I remember correctly the guy in Hartland CT who shot the moose in his yard only paid a $500 fine.

CT courts think fish and game violations are a waste of the courts time. They have bigger criminals to prosecute than hunters and fisherman.


seems like a real slap in the face to the wardens who work their understaffed a$$'s off to make these arrests.

It's kind of sad that the guy who will take the biggest hit out of all of this just gave the poachers a ride.

Now he has a bench warrant, has his license to drive suspended, and will be in jail once located.

Had he just shown up he probably could have had the charges dropped, or at the very least had to pay a small fine.

Now he has an added charge of failing to appear and a likely annoyed judge.

Actually, the penalty these three received was not "light" for CT. They forfeited their bonds meaning they were found guilty and will now have permanent criminal records (not that that means much nowadays). They will face administrative sanctions by DEEP and they forfeited ALL gear seized (including tree stands and bows, etc.) seized by the EnCon guys. In the general scheme of CT's criminal justice system, it wasn't just a light slap on the wrist. I know that it's frustrating for those of us who go out of our way to obey every regulation to see guys like this avoid going to jail for a few days. It has to be even more frustrating for theEnCon guys who workso hard on these cases.

The fact that CT courts in general have little, if any, interest in fish and game violations is really nothing new. It's been that way for at least 25 years. A lot depends a lot upon in which particular court the offender appears and upon which particular prosecutor handles the case. Some would have given these guys back everything without a second thought. Everyone involved in the criminal justice system is being pressured to move cases quickly and to keep people out of jail (as it costs $$$ to incarcerate people). Sad, but true.

MyGirl - I agree with you. The impetus for more enforcement of fish and game violations has to come from the legislature or from the Chief State's Attorney. For instance, about 25 years ago, the CT Criminal Justice system became MUCH more serious about DWIs and alcohol realted accidents after MADD and SADD began pressuring the legislature to take those offenses more seriously. Laws were passed stating that if prosecutors were dropping those charges, they had to state on the record in open court the reasons why they were doing so. There were mandatory minimum sentences mandated by statute. While I don't think we will ever see the level of interest in F&G violations that we do in DWIs, there should be some effort to address the situation. Try contacting your local reps and ask them to address the problem in the legislature. If they see the enforcement as a way to put more money into the state's coffers, they will all be on the bandwagon. Maybe suggest mandatory whopping fines with half the money going to DEEP enforcement and the other half to the gen'l fund.