Family In Cross Hairs Over Killing Of Elk Jury Acquits Parents, Son After State Accused Them Of Illegal Hunting

The elk meat meal 17-year-old Taj Hull had this week was bittersweet.

The Bonner County boy brought down the beast with his bow and arrow 20 months ago. But before his taste buds could savor his first archery kill, Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials confiscated the elk.

Authorities claimed Hull, who was 15 at the time, had shot the animal illegally with a rifle, not an arrow.

That began a nearly two-year nightmare for Hull and his parents, who all were charged with possessing an illegally taken game animal. They hired a lawyer, spent more than $1,500 to defend themselves and stood trial last week.

A jury found the family innocent, and the Hulls finally got back their 460 pounds of meat, the animal’s antlers and Hull’s fatal arrow.

The ordeal did more than drain the flavor from the elk meat.

“The whole thing kind of soured me,” Hull said, noting it was months before he picked up his bow again. Hull plans to mount the antlers but gave away most of the meat.

“We did nothing wrong,” said Hull’s mother, Betsy. “We hunt for food and spent most of our bank account trying to clear our name.”

The experience left the family fuming, angry at Fish and Game officials and the Bonner County prosecutor’s office for pursuing the case with such a vengeance.

“My son wanted to be a game warden all his life. He set up his bank account to go to Idaho Fish and Game when he died,” said Betsy Hull, who taught a Fish and Game hunting class. “He doesn’t want to be a game warden anymore. He doesn’t want anything to do with them.”

Bonner County Deputy Prosecutor Todd Reed knows his office and the Fish and Game Department are being criticized for pushing the case.

“We hear all the time from people who get a speeding ticket who say why don’t we go after the rapists and murderers, but we have all sorts of crime that we must prosecute,” Reed said. “We pursued this because we thought it was a good case and still think it was a good case even though we lost.”

While awaiting trial, Taj Hull endured taunts of “poacher” at school. His parents said they were harassed by Fish and Game officers who turned up to search their barn for two illegally shot deer. They found two legally killed antelope.

The hunting fiasco began in September 1994 when the family went bow hunting in Bonner County. Taj Hull spotted an elk and shot an arrow into its side. The teen and his father, Kurtis, tracked the wounded animal, and Taj Hull killed it with another arrow.

Another bowhunter in the area told Fish and Game he heard a gunshot and thought someone was poaching. It was bow season and shooting an elk with a rifle was illegal.

Fish and Game officer Larry Miller went to a hunter’s checkpoint and found the tag the Hulls had turned in to register their kill.

While inspecting the carcass at a meat-processing plant, Miller found two metal fragments in the elk’s rib cage and determined it had been shot illegally. He confiscated the elk and stored it in a freezer.

The Hulls were stunned. They had a video of the hunt and the elk with the arrow in it.

“What it boils down to is our son bagged an elk. Someone heard a shot and we were the closest camp,” Betsy Hull said. The Hulls said it’s likely another hunter had shot and wounded the elk but insisted their son killed it with an arrow.

The Hulls’ attorney, John Topp, argued that point in court. “There is no doubt in my mind that elk was shot before. It’s not uncommon to come across a wounded animal,” Topp said. “But the kid stuck it with an arrow, not a gun.”

After months of hassles with Fish and Game officers, the family demanded they be charged with a crime or their elk returned.

Taj Hull wasn’t charged until July 6, 1995, 10 months after he had killed the elk. When her son refused to plead guilty, Betsy Hull said, she and her husband were charged with the same crime in August.

“It would have been cheaper to plead guilty, but my son said he wasn’t going to admit to something he didn’t do,” Betsy Hull said.

Reed, the deputy prosecutor, said that isn’t what happened. The entire family was charged because they all were in possession of the elk.

“There was no coercion involved. We never said ‘you plead guilty or we will charge your parents,”’ Reed said. “And I don’t believe Fish and Game did anything wrong.”

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