DaytonDailyNews.com

TROY — A former state wildlife officer assigned to Miami County was sentenced Monday, July 14, to three years of community control and 60 days in jail for baiting a dove field, then citing hunters who showed up for the illegal baiting.

Holding back tears in a Miami County Common Pleas courtroom, Jason M. Snyder, 35, of Tipp City apologized to a half dozen hunters who sat nearby for the "terribly stupid series of mistakes I made."

Snyder pleaded guilty in May to felony tampering with records and misdemeanor falsification for making a false statement to incriminate another person.

The citations he wrote last Aug. 29 were not pursued in court after he came forward the following day and disclosed what he had done to Ohio Department of Natural Resources officials.

Defense lawyer, Mark Collins of Columbus, said he, like many who heard about the case, did not understand why someone like Snyder, who held what he called a dream job and had been commended for his work, would set up the hunters.

Collins said he thinks Snyder became "overzealous" and baited the private field "to draw attention to the area being overhunted."

Baiting migratory birds by placing bait or directing the placement of bait to lure birds for hunters violates state and federal law.

One of the hunters, Jeff Nelson, told Judge Jeffrey Welbaum that he'd complained to local and ODNR officials about Snyder allegedly harassing him but nothing had been done. If Snyder only received probation, Nelson said, "it would be a slap in my face."

Tony Kendell, an assistant county prosecutor, said he was not aware of complaints other than the one that had Snyder in court Monday.

"He set them up, then charged them," Kendell said of why Snyder was prosecuted.

Collins said Snyder, who turned himself in the next day and resigned from the wildlife officer job he'd held for six years, had no criminal record. More than a dozen people wrote letters to Welbaum asking him to give Snyder a second chance and not incarcerate him.

Snyder, in a barely audible voice, told the hunters "I'm sorry," as he was escorted by a bailiff to the jail.

Snyder had been employed by the Division of Wildlife since 1995.