justnorth posted on June 14, 2007 10:32 :: 1136 Views
A northeast Minnesota trapper's legal nightmare may just be beginning. Roderick "Rick" Kottom, sentenced June 4 in St. Louis County District Court on a bevy of state charges for illegal trapping activity, now faces federal charges.
The long-time trapper from Chisholm was found guilty of state charges of possession of a prohibited wild animal, misdemeanor failure to check traps/snares, petty misdemeanor failure to provide identification of traps/snares, and misdemeanor unlawful storage of protected wild animals.
State conservation officers had been tracking Kottom's activities since 2002. In 2004, conservation officers using a search warrant seized a number of fisher and pine marten pelts from his home.
Kottom was convicted of possession of a prohibited wild animal and received one year in jail, $3,000 fine, two years supervised probation, $962 fine and surcharge, $200 restitution (two fisher at $100 each). Kottom also agreed to report as directed to probation authorities, remain law abiding, and be subject to random searches.
For the misdemeanor failure to check traps/snares, Kottom was fined $320. Kottom was also fined $132 for petty misdemeanor failure to provide identification of traps/ snares and $362 for misdemeanor unlawful storage of protected wild animals. Both are to run concurrent to the $962 fine and surcharge.
However, Kottom's legal problems may be far from over. A 2003 Internet sting lead a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent to an advertisement on the Web placed by someone calling himself "Papa Fisher." The person was offering to sell fisher and pine marten pelts that had been trapped in Minnesota.
E-mail and telephone calls led the agent to Kottom, who now faces federal charges of illegally buying and selling animals over the Internet and a violation of the endangered species act for possessing a Canada lynx. The federal court proceeding is scheduled to begin in July in Duluth.
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