THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, August 2, 1995 TAG: 9508020450
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DIANE TENNANT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
A little simple math here:
Take three environmental consultants accused of hunting ducks in a baited area, a federal crime.
To this professional injury add the following insult: They didn't know the bait was there, and they only got one duck.
The sum, on Tuesday, was one hunter convicted, one hunter acquitted and one hunter convicted on one count and acquitted on another.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Tommy E. Miller said he did not think the defendants baited the Northampton County pond on Jan. 7. But in the end, the judge pointed out, the law strictly forbids hunting in an area where bait has been used to attract waterfowl - even if the hunters don't know the bait is there.
Steven E. Walls of Virginia Beach, an environmental consultant in Williamsburg, was found guilty of hunting waterfowl over a baited area.
Rosinas H. Jones of Virginia Beach, an environmental scientist with the Army, was convicted of not signing his duck stamp, but he was acquitted of hunting over bait.
Douglas S. Davis of Virginia Beach, president of Davis Environmental Consultants, was acquitted of hunting over bait.
Walls, in his closing argument, pleaded that his career has been spent protecting the environment. He asked Miller to provide justice instead of just strict adherence to the law.
``I'm a sportsman, not a killer of ducks,'' Walls said. ``I'm fighting this because it's an insult to my profession.''
Miller specified for the record that he did not believe the three had intentionally broken the law. ``There is absolutely no evidence that Mr. Walls placed any bait or even knew that it was there,'' Miller said.
But Walls was clearly within the limits of the baited area, Miller said, adding, ``In the case of Mr. Davis and Mr. Jones . . . I have a reasonable doubt, but just barely.''
State game wardens testified that they saw between 200 and 300 birds on the pond in late December. That many birds, they said, raised their suspicions that the area had been baited. When they looked more closely a few days later, they found corn and wheat.
They dropped by the site over the next few days. And in the late afternoon of Jan. 7, they saw Walls in a boat within 10 yards of the baited area. Walls' companions, who were hunting in a different spot at the pond's edge, returned to their vehicles a short time later and found the wardens waiting for them.
The defendants protested that they didn't know the bait was there, that they had been hunting woodcock all day and decided to hunt ducks after bagging their limit on the other birds. Davis said he was at least 75 yards away from the baited site, too far for it to have affected his hunting. If they had intended to hunt waterfowl illegally, Davis testified, they would have been closer to the baited area.
``We couldn't have been in a worse spot,'' he said. ``If they (the ducks) were drawn, they were drawn away from us.''
Jones was represented by Moody E. ``Sonny'' Stallings Jr., but the other two defended themselves. Throughout the trial, Miller coached them on court procedures, such as standing when talking to the judge, introducing documents as evidence and testifying.
Walls agreed to testify in Jones' defense, and answered a series of questions from Miller about what that would mean to his own case.
``You wish to waive your Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination?'' Miller asked.
Walls hesitated. ``That's a toughie,'' he said, finally.
``Well, that's what the previous 20 questions have been leading up to,'' Miller said, and explained it all again. Walls took the stand.
At the end of the trial, which lasted about three hours, Jones owed a fine of $100 for not signing his duck stamp, and Walls owed $250. Both also were required to pay a $10 special assessment fee. They could have received fines of $5,000 and six months in jail.
The ultimate outcome of their hunting trip was not what they had expected. ``Up until we saw the game wardens,'' Davis testified, ``it was a pretty uneventful day.'' by CNB