May 4, 2012
By Casey Grove, ADN.com
Ex-state wildlife head loses licenses for year, must pay $5,000
fine.
A former top official in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game
pleaded guilty Friday to two misdemeanor charges stemming from an
illegal bear hunt in 2008, Alaska State Troopers say.
Troopers in January charged ex-Alaska wildlife division chief Corey
Rossi, 52, with 12 criminal hunting violations for lying on hunting
reports. Rossi resigned in wake of the charges.
Rossi, once
a big game guide, pleaded guilty Friday in a deal with prosecutors
to one count of falsifying a bear-sealing certificate and one count
of unlawful acts by a guide.
Rossi's sentence, handed down
Friday, suspends his big game guiding license and his hunting
license for a year. He must pay a $5,000 fine but will spend no time
in jail, with all 60 days of his sentence suspended.
Bill
Satterberg, Rossi's lawyer, said Rossi paid a significant price
because of the sentence and by losing his job and license to hunt.
"He's never denied his responsibility here," said Rossi's
lawyer, Bill Satterberg. "He interviewed for over three hours by
troopers and fully accepted responsibility. He went in today and
accepted responsibility again in court."
Announcing the
charges in January, troopers said Rossi helped two hunters from the
Lower 48 kill three black bears and shot a bear for himself in the
Susitna Valley in June 2008. The Department of Law's Office of
Special Prosecutions filed charges saying Rossi lied on reports and
claimed to have killed all four bears, while the out-of-state
hunters failed to shoot any.
Troopers said wildlife
investigators got a tip about Rossi's illegal hunt from another law
enforcement agency outside Alaska in 2010. The charges against Rossi
said a Utah man had admitted to killing two bears while hunting with
Rossi.
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