April 20, 2012
By Casey Grove, Anchorage Daily News
An Anchorage-based hunting guide accused of illegally shooting
moose, leaving them to rot and then using their carcasses as bait
for his clients' brown bear hunts is facing new charges in federal
court.
An Anchorage-based hunting guide accused of illegally
shooting moose, leaving them to rot and then using their carcasses
as bait for his clients' brown bear hunts is facing new charges in
federal court.
Fred Sims, 48, was charged in state Superior
Court in 2010 with 31 misdemeanor counts, including killing moose
out of season, shooting them the same day he flew in an airplane,
leaving the meat to waste, and using the meat as bait, according to
court records. The state case is still pending.
Sims now
faces two felony counts in federal court for profiting twice -- once
in 2007 and again in 2009 -- when he allegedly guided clients who
shot brown bears that were attracted to the rotting moose meat,
according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Sims was looking at
a minimum seven days in jail and a $250,000 fine in the state case.
He now faces the possibility, if convicted, of a maximum 10 years in
federal prison and a $500,000 fine. And the federal authorities want
to seize Sims' airplane, a Piper Super Cub.
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