Court documents outline events of alleged illegal Denali Park hunt

ANCHORAGE — Court documents reveal details of an allegedly illegal Denali National Park moose hunt that involved a Wasilla man.

James C. Riggs, 58, of Wasilla, isn’t scheduled for an arraignment until Jan. 9 — an arraignment is generally seen as the formal start of criminal proceedings — while one of his co-defendants, Michael J. Barth, has struck a deal with prosecutors.

Barth has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Lacey Act and pay $2,500 in fines as well as his share of the $15,000 in restitution the hunting party will have to pay to the park for the two bull moose.

In documents filed outlining Barth’s plea agreement, prosecutors lay out just way they allege happened.

According to the documents, Charlie W. Hart, another of the co-defendants, negotiated with the owner of a private parcel of land in the Kantishna area inside the park to hunt on that person’s land. The landowner is only identified in documents as Landowner A.

“The landowner granted permission to Charlie W. Hart and any associates to hunt on landowner A’s property on the express conditions that only one bull moose be taken, and that the hunt occur within the confines of the private inholding,” the plea agreement states.

On Sept. 3, 2012, Hart, Riggs, Barth and a fourth co-defendant, Deric C. Hart, hunted for moose outside of that inholding on Denali National Park property.

The first moose was shot that day. Prosecutors say Deric Hart shot the animal. The hunting party dragged it off of the parkland and onto the private inholding with an ATV, field dressed it and removed its 64.5-inch antlers, the documents allege.

Riggs shot the second moose on Sept. 5, according to the documents. He had been hunting on another landowner’s property on which, documents allege, the party had no permission to hunt, but then wound up on park property where he shot the moose.

Prosecutors allege it was also dragged onto the private land with an ATV. They say that Riggs also let Barth tag the moose as if it were he who killed it.

On the way out of the park, rangers stopped the hunting party and talked to them about the trip.

“During the questioning, the hunting party lied to a National Park Ranger about the location of the kills, the rifles used to kill the moose and that Michael J. Barth killed one of the moose when in fact it the second moose was killed by James C. Riggs,” according to the documents.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.