This guy is the height of greed. He was sneaking in Yellowstone and videoing elk hunts for pure profit. He even left the carcass' for the wolf's.
Feature Articles
High Country News -- December 27, 1993 (Vol 25 No. 24)
Michael Milstein
Scrapbook photos show Don Lewis and poached trophies
Poacher gets light sentence
by Michael Milstein
A professional hunter who pleaded guilty in July to killing three elk in Yellowstone National Park in August had actually hunted in the premier national park for the last nine years, according to federal records. Yellowstone Chief Ranger Dan Sholly said the offenses are the worst example of poaching detected in Yellowstone in modern times.
"I'm not sure I could come up with a more outrageous action against wildlife in Yellowstone or any national park," he said. "I'm baffled by the failure of the system to really make an example out of these individuals."
Government attorneys promised Donald E. Lewis they would withhold his admissions that he and friends made annual hunting trips to Yellowstone from 1983 to 1991, and broke game laws in several states, including Montana, Colorado and Utah.
Prosecutors said the $15,000 fine Lewis paid under a plea bargain was probably the best penalty they could have gotten.
"It's difficult for me to imagine anything more severe than that" for a wildlife crime, said U.S. Attorney Richard Stacy, the chief federal prosecutor in Wyoming.
Game agents had spent more than 500 hours investigating Lewis and urged the U.S. Attorney's office in Wyoming to send his case to a grand jury. The head agent asked lawyers to prosecute Lewis "to the fullest extent," according to federal documents.
"This hunt in the park is the most blatant example of trophy poaching that I have encountered in my 30 years of investigating wildlife crime," lead agent Joel Scrafford wrote in April to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Crofts, the prosecutor handling the case.
In Yellowstone Park alone, where wildlife is protected, Lewis and his companions killed approximately 14 elk since 1983, records show. Some years they set up hunting camps inside the park.
In 1991, they videotaped themselves shooting at 13 elk, records say. Scrafford wrote Crofts that he was "convinced that we can prove beyond any doubt" the elk were hunted in Yellowstone.
A July plea bargain let Lewis and his hunting partner Arthur Sims, of Huntsville, Ala., each plead guilty by mail to three misdemeanor charges of poaching elk in the national park in 1991.
U.S. Magistrate John Brooks of Casper, Wyo., fined each the maximum $5,000 for each of the three elk they pleaded guilty to killing and banned them from hunting and national parks for five years. Neither received any jail time, except for 60 days Lewis was already serving in Utah for poaching eight mule deer there.
Scrafford said the fine was stiff, given federal sentencing rules. The pair could have received higher fines and imprisonment only if they had been charged with additional crimes.
But Wyoming prosecutor Stacy said they received "a hell of a big fine for a game violation" - 100 times what they might have paid under state law. Other offenders have gotten lighter sentences, even after they were taken to trial.
Lewis and Sims "were not rich tourist hunters from somewhere, these were just low-income working guys," federal prosecutor Crofts said. "Our job is to assess the probable outcome of legal reality and not to create some kind of a show."
Secrecy promised
In exchange for an agreement by Lewis and Sims to answer questions for federal agents, prosecutors promised not to file more charges, and would not help other jurisdictions, such as a state, prosecute them. Under those terms, records show, Lewis told federal agents that he had hunted elk in Yellowstone every fall from 1983 to 1991, "killing one or more elk on each trip."
Donald Lewis and Arthur Sims declined numerous requests for interviews; Alabama lawyer David Belser, who represents Lewis on new poaching charges in Utah, said he has told Lewis not to speak to the media.
But investigators identified pictures in a photo album Utah wardens seized from his pickup truck when he was arrested in 1991 for poaching mule deer in Utah. Twelve of the album's 17 photos depict Lewis with elk or antlers from elk killed in the Fawn Creek drainage and other parts of Yellowstone, the first in 1983.
Another album entry says: "Don Lewis posing with a bull elk he killed in Montana ... using a Colorado tag." Others describe animals taken illegally in Utah and Colorado. The album "revealed that Don and his friends have gone crazy shooting wildlife," said David Hintze, a Utah warden who apprehended Lewis.
Montana authorities say the state's three-year statute of limitations on poaching crimes will probably keep them from prosecuting Lewis, even though the clock technically does not run when the offender is outside of the state. Colorado officials are still investigating.
The deal to withhold Lewis' admissions was not a formal part of the plea bargain. But attorneys commonly make such arrangements so investigators can clear up unsolved cases, Crofts said.
Legal "realities"
"Once he told us the number of elk and where they were and those things, we were able to piece it together fairly well," he said. "But our agreement was that we wouldn't use that, so we were still kind of stuck with the evidence we had before that.
"That's frustrating, I guess, to the public and laymen sometimes, but those are just the realities we deal with."
Information about cases came through numerous requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act and interviews with state and federal officials and associates of Lewis.
Videotapes seized from Lewis show the pair shooting at 13 elk with bows and arrows near Yellowstone's Indian Creek Campground in 1991, according to transcripts of the tapes. Rangers established that the hunting took place in Yellowstone by locating and photographing park sites, including distinctive peaks, pictured on the tapes.
At least nine of the elk died. "One poor elk, when he staggers away, you see two or three arrows sticking out of his guts," said Yellowstone law enforcement specialist Pat Ozment. "It was just astounding, all of what these guys did in the park."
Stacy said the plea bargain was warranted because it may have been difficult to prove all the scenes were in the national park.
"There is certainly a strong suspicion that maybe there were that many elk killed in Yellowstone National Park," he said. "But as far as being able to prove there were that many killed in the park beyond a reasonable doubt, no, we're not able to do that."
Lewis was a paid representative of Browning Arms of Ogden, Utah, AFC Carbon Arrows of Chatfield, Minn., and Lynch Game Calls of Liberty, Miss.
Bows and rifles
Although Lewis boasted of his bowhunting skills, he and his partners killed several park elk with rifles, investigators determined. The poachers removed some heads and antlers, packed them out of the backcountry and shipped them home to Alabama, reports say.
Interstate transportation of illegal wildlife is a felony under the federal Lacey Act. Agents suspected Lewis of violating that law. But when Lewis admitted the crimes, attorneys had already promised to prosecute Lewis and Sims only on the misdemeanor charges.
Sholly said he understood the legal hindrances, but said taking Lewis and Sims to court on more charges might have deterred other poachers, such as those who killed two trophy elk in Yellowstone this fall.
Utah prosecutors tried last year to present reports of Lewis' nine-year hunting spree in Yellowstone when Lewis was sentenced for poaching in Utah. However, the judge refused to admit the reports since federal attorneys had promised secrecy.
The outcome of the park poaching case disappointed Craig Miya, assistant chief of law enforcement for Utah's wildlife agency, which found the incriminating videotapes. Lewis deserved a tougher penalty, Miya said, especially since he made his living hunting.
Trophy elk may be worth thousands, Stacy conceded.
"Maybe crime does pay," Miya said.
Federal agent Scrafford said he is satisfied with the fines but frustrated that, given the way the justice system works, "we cannot hit them harder."
Attorney Salter said Lewis and Sims had already suffered enough for offenses that would not be considered major crimes in Alabama. Sims lost his job with the security division of Boeing in Huntsville, Ala., last month. Once his hunting career failed, Lewis went back to school and is now working as an engineer, his brother said. "Lewis feels awful about this," Salter added. But the public is becoming less tolerant of poaching, Stacy said.
"Maybe five years from now, (if) somebody kills an elk in Yellowstone, we'll be able to get him some real serious jail time for it because attitudes will continue to change and solidify. We hope so."
Feature Articles
High Country News -- December 27, 1993 (Vol 25 No. 24)
Michael Milstein
Scrapbook photos show Don Lewis and poached trophies
Poacher gets light sentence
by Michael Milstein
A professional hunter who pleaded guilty in July to killing three elk in Yellowstone National Park in August had actually hunted in the premier national park for the last nine years, according to federal records. Yellowstone Chief Ranger Dan Sholly said the offenses are the worst example of poaching detected in Yellowstone in modern times.
"I'm not sure I could come up with a more outrageous action against wildlife in Yellowstone or any national park," he said. "I'm baffled by the failure of the system to really make an example out of these individuals."
Government attorneys promised Donald E. Lewis they would withhold his admissions that he and friends made annual hunting trips to Yellowstone from 1983 to 1991, and broke game laws in several states, including Montana, Colorado and Utah.
Prosecutors said the $15,000 fine Lewis paid under a plea bargain was probably the best penalty they could have gotten.
"It's difficult for me to imagine anything more severe than that" for a wildlife crime, said U.S. Attorney Richard Stacy, the chief federal prosecutor in Wyoming.
Game agents had spent more than 500 hours investigating Lewis and urged the U.S. Attorney's office in Wyoming to send his case to a grand jury. The head agent asked lawyers to prosecute Lewis "to the fullest extent," according to federal documents.
"This hunt in the park is the most blatant example of trophy poaching that I have encountered in my 30 years of investigating wildlife crime," lead agent Joel Scrafford wrote in April to Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Crofts, the prosecutor handling the case.
In Yellowstone Park alone, where wildlife is protected, Lewis and his companions killed approximately 14 elk since 1983, records show. Some years they set up hunting camps inside the park.
In 1991, they videotaped themselves shooting at 13 elk, records say. Scrafford wrote Crofts that he was "convinced that we can prove beyond any doubt" the elk were hunted in Yellowstone.
A July plea bargain let Lewis and his hunting partner Arthur Sims, of Huntsville, Ala., each plead guilty by mail to three misdemeanor charges of poaching elk in the national park in 1991.
U.S. Magistrate John Brooks of Casper, Wyo., fined each the maximum $5,000 for each of the three elk they pleaded guilty to killing and banned them from hunting and national parks for five years. Neither received any jail time, except for 60 days Lewis was already serving in Utah for poaching eight mule deer there.
Scrafford said the fine was stiff, given federal sentencing rules. The pair could have received higher fines and imprisonment only if they had been charged with additional crimes.
But Wyoming prosecutor Stacy said they received "a hell of a big fine for a game violation" - 100 times what they might have paid under state law. Other offenders have gotten lighter sentences, even after they were taken to trial.
Lewis and Sims "were not rich tourist hunters from somewhere, these were just low-income working guys," federal prosecutor Crofts said. "Our job is to assess the probable outcome of legal reality and not to create some kind of a show."
Secrecy promised
In exchange for an agreement by Lewis and Sims to answer questions for federal agents, prosecutors promised not to file more charges, and would not help other jurisdictions, such as a state, prosecute them. Under those terms, records show, Lewis told federal agents that he had hunted elk in Yellowstone every fall from 1983 to 1991, "killing one or more elk on each trip."
Donald Lewis and Arthur Sims declined numerous requests for interviews; Alabama lawyer David Belser, who represents Lewis on new poaching charges in Utah, said he has told Lewis not to speak to the media.
But investigators identified pictures in a photo album Utah wardens seized from his pickup truck when he was arrested in 1991 for poaching mule deer in Utah. Twelve of the album's 17 photos depict Lewis with elk or antlers from elk killed in the Fawn Creek drainage and other parts of Yellowstone, the first in 1983.
Another album entry says: "Don Lewis posing with a bull elk he killed in Montana ... using a Colorado tag." Others describe animals taken illegally in Utah and Colorado. The album "revealed that Don and his friends have gone crazy shooting wildlife," said David Hintze, a Utah warden who apprehended Lewis.
Montana authorities say the state's three-year statute of limitations on poaching crimes will probably keep them from prosecuting Lewis, even though the clock technically does not run when the offender is outside of the state. Colorado officials are still investigating.
The deal to withhold Lewis' admissions was not a formal part of the plea bargain. But attorneys commonly make such arrangements so investigators can clear up unsolved cases, Crofts said.
Legal "realities"
"Once he told us the number of elk and where they were and those things, we were able to piece it together fairly well," he said. "But our agreement was that we wouldn't use that, so we were still kind of stuck with the evidence we had before that.
"That's frustrating, I guess, to the public and laymen sometimes, but those are just the realities we deal with."
Information about cases came through numerous requests under the federal Freedom of Information Act and interviews with state and federal officials and associates of Lewis.
Videotapes seized from Lewis show the pair shooting at 13 elk with bows and arrows near Yellowstone's Indian Creek Campground in 1991, according to transcripts of the tapes. Rangers established that the hunting took place in Yellowstone by locating and photographing park sites, including distinctive peaks, pictured on the tapes.
At least nine of the elk died. "One poor elk, when he staggers away, you see two or three arrows sticking out of his guts," said Yellowstone law enforcement specialist Pat Ozment. "It was just astounding, all of what these guys did in the park."
Stacy said the plea bargain was warranted because it may have been difficult to prove all the scenes were in the national park.
"There is certainly a strong suspicion that maybe there were that many elk killed in Yellowstone National Park," he said. "But as far as being able to prove there were that many killed in the park beyond a reasonable doubt, no, we're not able to do that."
Lewis was a paid representative of Browning Arms of Ogden, Utah, AFC Carbon Arrows of Chatfield, Minn., and Lynch Game Calls of Liberty, Miss.
Bows and rifles
Although Lewis boasted of his bowhunting skills, he and his partners killed several park elk with rifles, investigators determined. The poachers removed some heads and antlers, packed them out of the backcountry and shipped them home to Alabama, reports say.
Interstate transportation of illegal wildlife is a felony under the federal Lacey Act. Agents suspected Lewis of violating that law. But when Lewis admitted the crimes, attorneys had already promised to prosecute Lewis and Sims only on the misdemeanor charges.
Sholly said he understood the legal hindrances, but said taking Lewis and Sims to court on more charges might have deterred other poachers, such as those who killed two trophy elk in Yellowstone this fall.
Utah prosecutors tried last year to present reports of Lewis' nine-year hunting spree in Yellowstone when Lewis was sentenced for poaching in Utah. However, the judge refused to admit the reports since federal attorneys had promised secrecy.
The outcome of the park poaching case disappointed Craig Miya, assistant chief of law enforcement for Utah's wildlife agency, which found the incriminating videotapes. Lewis deserved a tougher penalty, Miya said, especially since he made his living hunting.
Trophy elk may be worth thousands, Stacy conceded.
"Maybe crime does pay," Miya said.
Federal agent Scrafford said he is satisfied with the fines but frustrated that, given the way the justice system works, "we cannot hit them harder."
Attorney Salter said Lewis and Sims had already suffered enough for offenses that would not be considered major crimes in Alabama. Sims lost his job with the security division of Boeing in Huntsville, Ala., last month. Once his hunting career failed, Lewis went back to school and is now working as an engineer, his brother said. "Lewis feels awful about this," Salter added. But the public is becoming less tolerant of poaching, Stacy said.
"Maybe five years from now, (if) somebody kills an elk in Yellowstone, we'll be able to get him some real serious jail time for it because attitudes will continue to change and solidify. We hope so."
