Judge, I am addicted to Wildlife

[Nemont]

One thing about our society is we can all be victims of something. This guy isn't intentionally poaching animals because you see he is addicted to wildlife, it just like a drug.

'Serial poacher' gets two years in prison

By KATHLEEN A. SCHULTZ
Tribune Staff Writer

A lifelong poacher who claims to be "addicted to wildlife" was sentenced Wednesday to five years with the Department of Corrections, three suspended, and ordered to pay more than $18,000 in fines and restitution.

This is the third felony conviction for Gary Roger Motarie, 41, 524Þ 21st Ave. N.E., who agreed earlier this year to plead guilty to possessing unlawfully taken wildlife.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the state dropped 14 other misdemeanors and declined to label him a persistent felony offender.

Motarie, a paralegal who also has a lengthy misdemeanor history of illegal hunting and fishing (prompting one warden to dub him a "serial poacher"), took the stand Wednesday and blamed that history on a compulsion he said began in his childhood.

"I have a wildlife addiction," Motarie told District Judge Julie Macek. "I feel my wildlife addiction is like a drug addict, with drugs," he said.

Motarie said he is being counseled for his alleged illness, but Deputy Cascade County Attorney Marty Judnich was quick to point out that Motarie's therapist refused to testify on his behalf.

It's not an addiction, "it's pure greed," Judnich said. "He likes poaching. That's why his counselor's not here to testify for him."

He also pointed out that Motarie's compunction appears to be selective -- he only poaches the best animals in the state's most restricted areas.

"In the hunting world, he commits the biggest offense you can," the prosecutor said.

A few minutes later, Motarie vehemently protested Judnich's request that he forfeit all his game mounts and related items.

Despite his claim that he is "making a real effort to quit," "is finding other activities to do" and is "learning to enjoy (himself) without hunting," Motarie told Macek he believed he "deserved" to keep anything he said was legally taken.

Macek said that, according to statute, she didn't think she could force Motarie to forfeit anything the state couldn't prove was ill-gotten.

And although Judnich had requested she levy a $35,000 fine, Macek reluctantly ruled that the law prevented her from fining Motarie more than he could pay back during the term of his sentence.

Given his financial situation -- Motarie said he has more than $80,000 in debt -- Macek set the fine at $15,000. As an "incentive" for him to stay out of trouble with the law for the next six years, she suspended $5,000 of that.

The $3,100 in restitution Motarie must pay will go to the state department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks, as will the game mounts. The forfeitures will be used for public education and to fund the (800) TIP-MONT anti-poaching hotline.

Motarie also was sentenced Wednesday to six months, suspended, for improper transfer of a hunting license and for hunting while his privileges were revoked.

That extra year will run consecutively to the five-year DOC commitment, and to another Glacier County sentence he is serving. All told, Motarie will be under the department's supervision for at least the next 12 years.

How Motarie will serve the two years of Macek's sentence that were not suspended -- in prerelease, under intensive supervision or in prison -- will be up to DOC officials.

Or it may become a moot point, at least for a while:

In November 2002, Motarie killed a trophy elk in the Sun River Wildlife Management Area northwest of Augusta. The Cut Bank newspaper ran a photo of him with the animal, and local residents turned him in.

He was fined $8,000 for killing a trophy animal, ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution and lost his hunting privileges for 20 years.

But before he decided to plead guilty, Motarie threatened a witness and a game warden slated to testify against him. In January 2003, he was sentenced to two concurrent six-year terms in Montana State Prison, all time suspended, for witness tampering and intimidation.

Wednesday's conviction is likely to trigger a revocation of that suspension, which means Motarie could be ordered to serve his six years in Deer Lodge.

A hearing on the matter will be held Sept. 22, Glacier County Attorney Larry Epstein said Wednesday.

Motarie's recent troubles began on Feb. 28, when Fish, Wildlife & Parks Warden Bryan Golie spotted him and a friend illegally night-fishing the Missouri, near Cascade.

In March, Justice of the Peace Sam Harris took a look at his record, then took away Motarie's hunting and fishing rights for life, fined him $2,500 and sentenced him to three concurrent six-month jail terms for fishing while revoked, unlawful possession of brown trout and fishing with four poles in a one-pole area, all misdemeanors.

But after his arrest, Motarie's fishing buddy, Brett McMurphey, told game officials that Motarie had used his wife's license to shoot a bear, an elk and three deer during the 2003 hunting season, and had still had the meat and mounts to prove it.

A search of Motarie's Cut Bank home led to the District Court charges.

Because of his cooperation, McMurphey was given a deferred prosecution. He stayed out of trouble for six months, so his two misdemeanor charges were dismissed in April

 

[Muledeer4me]

What a crock ---He should of got more time and a bigger fine.