Judge explains deer-poisoning sentence

Flathead County Justice of the Peace David Ortley wants to set the record straight when it comes to the sentence he gave a Ferndale man who pleaded guilty to poisoning deer.

Ortley has heard from citizens angry over a fine that amounted to just $85, along with a deferred jail sentence of one year - a period during which the offender must remain law abiding.

"My frustration is that often times the public looks at what law enforcement officers do, what prosecutors do and what judges do, and they don't consider the information those people had," Ortley said Friday.

In the case of Colin Reis, Ortley said he had limited information: a ticket issued by a game warden and Reis standing before him in court.

"From my perspective, I didn't have any information from the warden," Ortley said. "There was not a representative of the state there. There never is, because we average anywhere between 850 and 900 tickets a month."

The citation issued to Reis charged him with "violating restriction on manner of killing deer" along with a descriptive note, "put gopher poison out for sole purpose of making deer sick."

The ticket presented an immediate problem because it referred to a violation of a hunting statute, and "poisoning is not considered a method of hunting," Ortley said.

But Ortley ended up sentencing Reis under a "base violation" of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks rules and regulations. Had Ortley required the warden to rewrite the ticket, Reis could have been charged with numerous other offenses, including cruelty to animals.

But Ortley said that in the interest of efficiency he reached a compromise with Reis.

"I had a man in front of me who was genuinely contrite and remorseful and embarrassed, frankly," Ortley said. "He claimed to me he was acting out of frustration over the overpopulation of deer near the [Ferndale] airstrip and the fact that neighbors don't allow hunting."

What Ortley didn't know was that investigating warden Chuck Bartos had to put down a deer that was dying of strychnine poisoning. Nor did he know that Bartos, based on interviews with neighbors and Reis himself, believed that Reis had been putting out poison for deer for "several years."

Residents who live near the airstrip were greatly concerned about the potential for pets to be poisoned or for secondary poisoning of animals that may have fed on dead deer in the area.

"Had I known the depth of the problem I would have handled the case differently," Ortley said.

He learned more about the case from newspaper accounts and speaking with people involved. He also received a letter from an angry citizen who wondered if the sentence could be reconsidered.

It cannot.

"For the volume of tickets we do, we rarely hear from anybody," Ortley said. "And it always seems that animals are what people get up out of their chairs for."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com