Here are the Citations issued that I requested from the Lake County Justice Court
FWP Swan River map, Fatty Creek.
These are not all the "violations" that were found, the warden said. I called the Lake County attorney's office to see about getting the case reports for the citations, I have left messages twice.
I have a number of reasons for pursuing this, most stem from our wardens and other LE being able to do their job. Without access to these kinds of reports, it would seriously hamstring them. Currently, law requires them to submit client logs. On March 1,2, 2016, the Board of Outfitters met in Helena, Tabor is appointed to this board.
MOGA reported on the meeting, of which Tabor is President elect. At the bottom of the page, concerning future legislation:
Remove the requirement to submit client logs – This will require statutory change. Outfitters will be required to retain and provide logs if audited, you would just noit have to submit them to the Board. We see this as a very significant cost savings as all the logs being submitted now must be scanned and filed. The counter is that these logs MAY help some outfitters faced with allocative decisions on some waterways. That is not likely simply because of the manner in which the data is collected retained and the cost of mining that data to verify past use. We are committed to getting this law amended.
As a retired FWP game warden explained it, currently those records are public information, which they need to investigate. They can gain access to public records without tipping off who they are investigating, sometimes investigations take years. But if outfitters are not required to submit records, the records are private property; a warden or other LE would have to subpoena them, which would give a heads up to the outfitter they were being investigated. Additionally, with the pattern of county attorneys dismissing cases, it makes outfitter laws pretty toothless.
I spoke with the DNRC office in that area, they said they did not renew Tabors commercial use license because of the issues. Tabors subcontractor did not have a commercial use license with DNRC for each of the events. The cost for commercial licenses is based on a set fee or 5% of gross earnings if larger, based on records, but if they don't have to report, how are you going to know if the money collected by DNRC for school trust, is even accurate?
I called FS District Rangers office in that area to see if they had any violations by Tabor. I have not heard back from the LE yet, but was told that there had been a number of complaints against him. When I asked if they were from landowners, other outfitters, the public or other agencies, I was told I would have to put a FOIA in for that information, which I did. I also put in a request with Department of Labor & Industry, Compliance for statistics on outfitter/guide complaints, to see if there was any foundation to the statement that they received the most complaints than any other licensed occupation, or if that was just bs. I put a Public Information request in to FWP for 5 years of statistics on how many citations have been issued, how many dismissed, how many convicted, per year, per region to see if there is a pattern in certain areas of dismissals. I put a request with the State AG for any requests for intervention to prosecute FWP citations.
These are some of the concerns I have with our sportsmen's dollars, FWP enforcement being able to do their job properly, protecting the resource, and the accountability/transparency aspect.
Judge dismisses FWP investigation of Bullock appointee
Last month, Lake County Justice of the Peace Randal Owens threw out a series of outfitter violations leveled by Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks against a Swan Lake outfitter and gubernatorial appointee. The order vacated a jury trial set for mid-December and came at the request of Deputy Lake County Attorney Molly Owen, who filed a motion on July 5 to dismiss the charges against Patrick M. Tabor without prejudice citing "an insufficient likelihood of conviction." The investigation had been led by FWP Warden Frank Bowen.
Link to the previous, related issue in Lake County with FWP citations dismissed I found when I first got the citations on Aug. 16th.
To serve and deflect
Last year, investigators accused seven Lake County police officers of a range of dishonorable and criminal acts, including poaching, perjury, nepotism, ethics violations, false claims of military combat, and witness tampering and intimidation. The investigators moved to strip those officers of their badges.
As of last week, all seven cases have been resolved. One officer lost his badge. Of the other six, complaints were dismissed against three cops, two were issued minor sanctions and one was given a lengthy suspension.
The two primary investigators did not get off so easy. A Montana game warden and the director of the state agency that polices the police became the targets of smear campaigns that undermined their work exposing what the warden called a "culture of corruption" pervading law enforcement agencies in Lake County. Both left their positions—the warden was reassigned, while the director resigned under pressure.
The reputed mantra of the accused officers—that "you can't break the law if you are the law"—appears to ring as true today as when the investigations began more than three years ago.
State Investigator Describes Resistance, Alleges Tampering Among Lake County Law Officials
While saying that the majority of law officers are upstanding, Bowen described allegedly brazen criminality among officers who were the subject of his investigation, with barroom bragging characterized by the motto: “You can’t break the law if you are the law.”
“When (people) ask them, ‘How can you get away with doing that, much less come to the bar and brag about it?’” Bowen testified at the hearing. “They say, ‘Nobody screws with law enforcement in Lake County.’ So that’s the backdrop we’re up against.”...
Sen. Jim Shockley of Victor, chairman of the Law and Justice Interim Committee, said he has taken an interest in the Lake County investigations by FWP and other state agencies and boards. Shockley believes there are conflict-of-interest concerns, with a county attorney reluctant to prosecute his own law officers.
“You must believe in the tooth fairy if you think that that county attorney is going to pursue claims against his deputies,” Shockley said.
In an interview, Shockley said when officers are accused of crimes in Ravalli County the cases are turned over to outside investigators and he believes that’s how those situations should be handled statewide.
“Obviously somebody’s got something to hide,” Shockley said, “and it ain’t Bowen.”
But when I get back, I am going to call Larry with what I found and see what he advises (Hope to get that video done this weekend). I talked with the Game Warden yesterday to get clarification on the citations, to better understand the process. 
