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Wildlife officials suspended in hunting license case

A South Carolina wildlife officer was allowed to hunt at Ohio’s in-state rate.

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 2:06 AM Saturday, May 8, 2010

XENIA — In November 2006, South Carolina wildlife officer Eric Vaughn got a hunting license on a visit to Ohio. He listed the home address of Allan Wright, a state wildlife officer in Brown County, on the application and paid $19 for a license that would have cost another out-of-stater $125.

Wright, who assisted with the license and checked in the three deer killed by his friend Vaughn, has been charged with a felony.

Wildlife Division officials in 2008, after an internal probe, verbally reprimanded Wright, who is supervised by the Xenia regional office of the Wildlife Division.

That wasn’t sufficient punishment, a recent report by Ohio Inspector General Thomas Charles said. Charles began his investigation after a confidential complaint in 2009. Brown County Prosecutor Jessica Little in April charged Wright with two felony counts of tampering with records and one misdemeanor count of falsification — the use of the Ohio address for Vaughn. Five administrators above Wright are on paid leave at a cost of nearly $10,000 per week and face felony charges of obstructing justice and complicity stemming from not pursuing a criminal investigation.

The five are Division Chief David Graham; Assistant Chief Randy Miller; law enforcement administrator Jim Lehman; District Five Manager Todd Haines, who is based in Xenia, and Human Resources Manager Michele Ward-Tackett. All pleaded not guilty.

The report criticized Wildlife Division leadership for classifying Wright’s actions as “Failure of Good Behavior” and issuing him a verbal reprimand. It said a “more appropriate” classification is “Dishonesty” by “willfully falsifying an official document,” a criminal action that should have been reported to the Ohio Division of Natural Resource’s director. Further, the I.G. report said, “wildlife administrators committed wrongful acts or omission by failing to properly investigate officer Wright.”

Charles said he didn’t make a recommendation on prosecution, nor did he know ahead of time the six would be put on paid leave.

”This is totally overboard,” said Jack Shaner of the Ohio Environmental Council. “We’re not talking about rogue repeat commercial fishermen who kept two sets of books and stole thousands of dollars of fish from the public. It’s a wildlife officer making a single bad judgment.”

Little said, “I understand people saying this is a piddling thing. But what burns people up is others are prosecuted for this same offense. And the officers’ superiors admit that and know that. Just because it’s a practice does not mean it’s lawful and should be done. There has to be a line drawn here.”

There’s a question of whether state policy — written or unwritten — was violated at all. The state didn’t clearly forbid cut-rate hunting licenses to out-of-staters until 2008, the I.G.’s report said. That year, Ohio wildlife personnel were prohibited from accepting a cut-rate license from other states, too.

The five top officials under the gun with Wright all told investigators that allowing wildlife officers to pay in-state hunting and fishing fees or have them waived is a common practice. While the investigative report found the explanation unbelievable, there’s truth to what the officials said, Kentucky and Indiana representatives confirm.

Mark Marraccini, spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, said that years ago formal policies between wildlife agencies allowed free licenses.

“It was to allow a professional from one agency to view first-hand how things worked,” Marraccini said.

Indiana law specifically allows a non-resident to purchase a hunting or fishing license at the resident rate when the person is a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service or state conservation department employee in Indiana on official business.

Wright told the I.G. that “it has been a common practice that in the southwest part of Ohio, officers from Kentucky and Indiana would hunt in Ohio using resident Ohio licenses.”

Larry Mitchell, president of the League of Ohio Sportsman and a 60-year hunter, said his organization hasn’t taken a formal stance on the affair. But, speaking for himself, he said:

“Truthfully, the Division of Wildlife is run by professionals and the people this is happening to are professionals. As a sportsman, I am not overly concerned with the courtesy (the out-of-state officer) received,” he said.

The controversy could go on for a while yet. The I.G. is now investigating fishing licenses issued to out-of-state visitors connected to the Xenia regional office.

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