4 Westmoreland men accused of poaching
A tip led state game commission investigators to break up a poaching ring operating in eastern Westmoreland County that netted 11 deer and hundreds of pounds of venison the suspects allegedly shared with friends.
Wildlife Conservation Officer Brian Singer called the case a significant one. He filed 96 charges against four men, who face thousands of dollars in fines and the potential loss of their hunting licenses.
“Poaching can have long-lasting effects on a (deer) population,” Singer said Thursday. “When people do this, it goes beyond taking out 11 individual animals.”
The deer allegedly were shot in Derry, Mt. Pleasant and Unity townships between October and December during archery and rifle hunting season.
Charged and cited for varying levels of involvement are: Charles Harr Sr., 45, and his son Charles Harr Jr., 19, both of Derry Township; and the son's friends, Benjamin Scott Daniels, 18, and Travis R. Kolick, 23, both of Unity.
“I had been peer-pressured in by one of my friends,” Daniels told the Tribune-Review Thursday.
State police were tipped off on Dec. 10 by a resident that someone driving a white Dodge pickup truck was “jack lighting” — using a spotlight to locate deer at night and then shooting at them from inside the vehicle. Troopers and game officers swarmed the Bernaur Road area in Mt. Pleasant Township just after 9 p.m. and stopped a truck matching the description, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Harr Jr. was in the truck with a loaded rifle and a dead whitetail deer, according to court papers.
“They were shooting deer out the window with a rifle,” Singer said.
Harr Jr. directed officers to Daniels and Kolick, who were nearby with two more deer carcasses.
“They were actually dragging them back to the road when officers arrived,” Singer said.
The three men told investigators they shot at a fourth deer but didn't know whether it was hit.
Deer are particularly vulnerable at night, Singer said.
“It's convoluted, it's complex, but it's typical with game charges,” he said. “It's not fair chase, and it's not hunting. It's poaching; it's killing.”
Investigators pieced together interviews, evidence found at the men's homes, photographs of the kills posted on Facebook and packaged meat stored in freezers and coolers to connect them to several other poaching incidents.
At Harr Sr.'s residence, officers found about 40 pounds of packaged venison and five deer carcasses, Singer said. Investigators believe he helped his son process the animals.
“They were taking the meat off of these carcasses, but they were doing it very hastily,” Singer said, keeping some venison for themselves and sharing some with friends.
Unlawful taking of big game or wildlife — or poaching — is the most-charged hunting offense in Westmoreland County and statewide.
In 2014-15, 1,582 unlawful taking charges were filed in the state, according to game commission press secretary Travis Lau. In the previous year, 1,112 charges were filed. The 42 percent increase could be related to a major snow geese poaching incident last year in Berks County, as well as a new group of conservation officers starting to work, Lau said.
“We had a new class in the field, so we're going to see that uptick,” he said.
The second-most charged offense — unauthorized use of a vehicle, such as using an all-terrain vehicle on state game lands — hardly compares to the poaching-related charge, Lau said. In 2014-15, there were 621 unauthorized vehicle offenses and 615 the previous year, he said.
Harr Sr. has pleaded guilty to five summary citations for deer killed in October and November. He was ordered Thursday to pay $5,000 in fines.
Investigators found three deer carcasses dumped near Kolick and Daniels' homes, Singer said.
Daniels has pleaded guilty to six summary citations for hunting violations in Unity in December. Fines have not been imposed yet. No action has been taken on 11 more summary citations for Dec. 9 hunting violations in Mt. Pleasant Township.
No action has been taken on any of Harr Jr.'s 26 citations for hunting violations in Derry, Mt. Pleasant and Unity townships in October, November and December.
The summary violations carry a range of fines from $100 to $1,500 each and as long as three months in jail.
Harr Jr., Kolick and Daniels are charged criminally with the Dec. 10 incident with four misdemeanor counts of unlawful taking of big game and several summary hunting violations. Court papers indicate Kolick was holding the spotlight.
All are scheduled for preliminary arraignments on April 4 and hearings on April 14. They face more than $20,000 in maximum fines in that case alone.
A message left at a number for Harr Jr. was not returned. Phone numbers for Kolick and Harr Sr. could not be located.
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-837-5374 or rsignorini@tribweb.com.
