Trial Opens For Russian Accused Of Poaching Senchenko Opts To Use Court-Appointed Attorney

The lengthy witness list for a Russian immigrant accused of poaching bears includes a federal judge, a tow truck driver and Idaho mining magnate Harry Magnuson.

But none of those people - who have little to do with the case against Nikolay Senchenko - likely will be called to testify at the trial.

Senchenko, 46, represented himself during jury selection Monday and Prosecutor Tim Ohm’s opening statements on Tuesday. He interrupted both those proceedings several times with objections U.S. District Court Judge Fred Van Sickle overruled.

After lunch Tuesday, the judge said Senchenko had decided to use the court-appointed attorney who spent most of the trial so far sitting quietly at the defendant’s bench.

Van Sickle recessed the trial until Monday so attorney Leslie Weatherhead could prepare an opening statement.

Senchenko, who became a U.S. citizen in 1994, is accused of setting at least four high-powered snares in Pend Oreille County since 1992.

Agents accuse Senchenko of “selectively harvesting” the paws, heads and gall bladders of at least three bears caught in the illegal snares. Such body parts - gall bladders in particular - bring high prices on the black market.

Court documents show Senchenko had a list of 30 potential witnesses, including Weatherhead, Ohms and U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno, who signed a warrant allowing state and federal agents to search his home.

Senchenko planned to question the tow-truck driver who hauled his Isuzu Trooper from the woods the day Senchenko was arrested near one one of the snares.

Magnuson apparently was on the witness list because he wrote a letter to Van Sickle saying he believed Senchenko should be given the harshest punishment possible, said the businessman’s secretary in Wallace.

Magnuson, who was not subpoenaed, does not know Senchenko, the secretary said. He apparently learned of the case through news accounts.

The court file also includes a letter Senchenko sent Monday to President Clinton, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, the United Nations Center for Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, and others.

In it, he claims the court violated his rights and asks “is there any power to stop Judge Van Sickle from violating the constitutional rights of the defendant?” Senchenko also claims his rights were violated with the midnight search of his home.

Van Sickle on Tuesday refused to suppress evidence from that search.

“Even in the Soviet Union, where they killed 140 million people, when they do a search, they come between 6 and 8 (p.m.) and they let you call a witness to observe,” Senchenko’s wife, Valentina Senchenko, wrote in a court affidavit.

Valentina Senchenko wrote that her mother, who was sick with bone cancer at the time of the search, died three months later. “Her condition was definitely affected by what she suffered that night,” she wrote.

Court documents show Senchenko was a professional trapper in Russia. Twice before his arrest, he flunked a test required to become a trapper in Washington.

Senchenko, speaking through an interpreter, objected seven times Monday during Ohms’ opening statements.

“Mr. Senchenko, please sit down,” Van Sickle told him each time, explaining the defendant should wait until his own opening statement to raise issues.

One juror told the judge he couldn’t hear some of Ohms’ 45-minute presentation over the drone of Senchenko’s interpreter.

Ohms has the option of repeating his opening statement when the trial resumes Monday, Van Sickle said.

, DataTimes