Trophy sale gets man 30 days in jail

A Wasilla man accused of selling big game trophies to a Houston restaurant owner was fined and sentenced Thursday to 30 days in jail, but was cleared of felony charges in the case.

James Keel, 40, pled no contest to one misdemeanor count of illegally purchasing and selling the big game mounts, while two other counts were dismissed. Those included second-degree theft and one count of selling big game.

Keel was charged Nov. 20, 2001, in connection with allegedly peddling an Axis deer shoulder mount, a caribou shoulder mount and a black bear hide rug to Thomas Hood, the owner of Mile 49 CafŽ in Houston. Keel allegedly was paid $600 for all three.

Both men said in their affidavits to wildlife investigator Mitchell Doerr that they did not know such an exchange was illegal. Hood said he put out the word that he wanted wild animal mounts to decorate his cafŽ.

Doerr said in cases in which individuals want to sell trophy mounts, Alaska law requires them to obtain a permit from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office. In cases in which an animal is under federal protection, they must obtain a federal permit from U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

Taxidermist Robert Jewett of Top Gun Taxidermy said he saw the trophies May 18, 2001, while eating at Mile 49 CafŽ and he reported to wildlife officers that they belonged to him. Jewett said he loaned the trophies to the Cottonwood Creek Mall for an advertising display in 1999. The trophies were stored away at the mall after the display sometime later that year, according to charging documents, and disappeared on an unknown date.

Keel reported to Doerr that he had purchased the mounts from a man whom he knew only as "Curtis," selling from the back of a Dodge Dakota pick-up at a Houston flea market. Though he was employed at the Cottonwood Creek Mall, he said he had not taken them from there.

In court Thursday, Keel told Magistrate David Zwink that in all his years of hunting and fishing, he has "never once been accused of violating game laws." He also had not been accused of theft, he said.

"I have never shot out of season or fished out of season. I take my hunting and fishing privileges seriously," Keel said.

His attorney, assistant public defender Rachel Levitt, told Zwink that Keel is a responsible member of the community and as a lieutenant in the Big Lake Fire Department, "takes his role seriously. He is fully employed and does not have a record of any similar violations."

Zwink said this case nonetheless has "an impact on the public. The state takes the protection of its game very seriously."

He fined Keel $500 in addition to the term he is to serve at the Cordova Center starting May 1.