A Black Diamond man must pay $500 and is prohibited from hunting for five years after pleading guilty to hunting out of season in Turner Valley Provincial Court last week. Spencer Reichert was scheduled to have a trial Dec. 19 after court commissioner Sam Wan refused his guilty plea on Oct. 17. Reichert had pled guilty to hunting out of season before making a statement in his defence that prompted Wan to refuse his plea and insist on a trial. On Dec. 19, Crown prosecutor Bev Shugg told the court a call was made to the report a poacher hotline on Aug. 7 in reference to a mule deer fawn that had been shot and killed by a pellet gun near Oilfields General Hospital in Black Diamond. Shugg said two attending Alberta Fish and Wildlife officers provided photographic and written evidence that the fawn was killed by a BB pellet on Reichert’s property. An autopsy showed a pellet bypassed two ribs and penetrated the fawn’s lung. “The deer were in his yard and he used a pellet gun to shoot at the deer to scare them off and he killed the fawn,” Shugg said. While the penalty for illegally hunting is $2,000, Shugg suggested a $500 fine and temporary hunting licence suspension. She added that Reichert has since given the pellet gun away. Commissioner P. Roginski agreed to the Crown’s terms. “I’m prepared to accept your guilty plea on these terms,” he told Reichert, adding he supports the lenient penalty due to the circumstances.
