2009.04.07
Man caught baiting and hunting bear at Cascades
A Pembroke man who was caught baiting and hunting bear at the Cascades Recreation Area in Giles County last fall pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to six charges he faced, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.
Merrill Conley, 54, pleaded guilty to illegally baiting bear, providing false information to an officer, knowingly allowing a juvenile to hunt in a baited place, knowingly hunting in a baited place, maintaining an illegal trail on national forest and littering. Through a plea agreement, he will avoid jail time but must pay more than $2,700 in fines and court costs. He also was banned from hunting for a year and from the national forest for five years.
Conley was charged Oct. 23 with violating the state regulations, said Capt. Woody Lipps with the forest service. Conley and a teenage boy had developed a trail into the woods around the recreation area, would leave food out to attract bears and then would kill the bears, Lipps said. Conley's activity had been investigated for weeks before he was caught, Lipps said.
Lipps said law enforcement officers know of two bears that were killed. The baiting drew several bears to the area but no interaction with other humans was reported, he said.
