Valley guide gets four days in jail

PALMER -- A Valley big game guide was sentenced last week to four days in jail and fined nearly $4,000 after pleading no contest to charges saying he failed to promptly report hunting violations to state game officials.

Mark P. Meekin, 45, changed his original plea to the reduced charges, down from the initial 18 misdemeanor counts of unlawful acts by a guide, including failure to report a violation, aiding in the commission of a violation and failing to accompany nonresidents during a hunt.

The Alaska Department of Fish and Game charges were filed in March in Palmer District Court.

According to court documents, the investigation began after trooper investigator Mitchell Doerr received a complaint on Sept. 15, 2000, that Meekin allowed his nonresident clients to take Dall sheep without being accompanied by him in the summer of 1998 and 1999.

Subsequent investigation revealed that two other sets of hunters claimed that Meekin failed to stay with them as they hunted.

In a Dec. 14 interview with troopers, Meekin acknowledged he was just several hundred yards to one mile from the hunters during the hunts, according to charging documents.

Meekin told troopers that he can control the hunters from those distance.

He also said in court documents that he felt the regulation for big game guiding does not require hunters "to be chained to their guide."

While state law does require nonresident hunters to hire a registered guide when hunting in Alaska, the statute does not specifically indicate the proximity the guide is required to be in relation to the hunter.

The initial tipster, who was not named in the complaint, allegedly provided the names of two Oregon hunters who were allowed to hunt by Meekin without a guide.

In November 2000, investigators traveled to Oregon and interviewed the two hunters identified by the undisclosed informant.

According to charging documents, the hunters told troopers that neither Meekin nor his assistant guide were present during their sheep hunt in August, 1999.

The two hunters also said Meekin left them alone for two days without a guide.

Meekin told troopers in an interview that he had left the hunters alone for one day, saying he felt confident the clients could judge a legal sheep and would be safer traversing the terrain.

Two more hunters who said they hired Meekin as a hunting guide in 1998 alleged to troopers that the big game guide failed to accompany them.

One hunter told troopers he killed a grizzly bear and a Dall sheep without Meekin present.

Meekin was allegedly one mile away and out of sight when the grizzly was taken and a mile away when the sheep was shot.

The hunter's partner also shot a sheep without Meekin aiding him in the spotting, stalking or judgment of the animals size, he told troopers according to court records.