Rogue guide guilty

ANCHORAGE — A big-game guide who ran from the law a year ago and eventually was found in Big Lake has been convicted of charges stemming from his absconding.

According to a press release from Alaska State Troopers, Michael A. “Tony” Roberts was convicted after a two-day trial of criminal mischief and violating the conditions of his release for cutting his ankle monitor and running from the law in October 2012.

He was apparently trying to avoid facing up to hunting violations and was a fugitive for one week before he was found hiding under a bed in a Big Lake home.

This was not Roberts’ first run from the law stemming from a wildlife case. In 1999 after he was busted for various wildlife crimes that included shooting a sublegal moose, baiting bears, hunting the same day he flew in and committed other wildlife crimes during a hunt in Talkeetna in which one of his clients was an undercover trooper.

When he ran in 1999, Roberts was on the lam for six months.

Also not a new experience for Roberts was having the state take his airplane as punishment for his crimes. In June of this year, he lost his third plane to seizure, this one a Cessna 206. The plane was taken from him after a jury convicted him of possessing illegal game and flying without a license. He got 520 days in jail with 180 of them suspended for that offense.

What he’ll get for the Anchorage criminal mischief case is still up in the air. He’s due to be sentenced Feb. 7, 2014. Troopers say the penalty for those crimes could be up to four years on the criminal mischief charges and up to 90 days on violating release conditions.

Even when he’s sentenced that won’t be the end of it.

“He is still awaiting trial for other cases charging him with three felonies and approximately 30 misdemeanors,” according to troopers.

One of those open cases includes counts of defrauding creditors, falsifying business records, flying without a license, guiding without a license, unlawful possession of game meat and driving on a revoked license. Prosecutors are also attempting to revoke his probation on a 2010 case out of Cordova that includes reckless flying and reckless endangerment charges in addition to wildlife crimes.

Roberts’ criminal history, according to previous AST press statements, includes drunken driving, numerous guiding offenses, assault, forgery and driving without a license.

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