Hunter won’t face charges for elk kill

ST. ANTHONY, Idaho – Authorities have decided not to prosecute a hunter who shot an elk inside a private eastern Idaho hunting reserve owned by Rex Rammell.

Rammell has been banned from Yellowstone National Park for a year for giving park rangers a fake name when they asked him for ID.

Idaho Gov. Jim Risch signed an executive order Sept. 7 ordering the destruction of an estimated 160 domesticated elk that escaped in August from the Chief Joseph private hunting reserve operated by Rammell near Ashton. Risch said the elk could spread disease and pollute the gene pool of wild elk.

The hunter, who has not been identified, was taking part in that emergency hunt and told Idaho Department of Fish and Game officials that he thought the elk was outside the reserve when he shot it Oct. 7.

Fremont County Deputy Prosecutor Paul Butikofer said an investigation found that the hunter did not know the elk was on the reserve when he shot it and acted appropriately by alerting authorities when he realized his mistake.

Rammell said Monday that he plans to file a civil lawsuit. Hunters on the reserve pay upward of $5,000 to hunt elk.

The incident in Yellowstone occurred in August 2005 when Rammell was one of 13 horse riders in the southwest portion of the park. Rammell said he was ticketed for refusing to provide his identity. But Al Nash, a park spokesman, told the Associated Press on Thursday that Rammell told park rangers that his name was Rex Hendricks.

Nash said rangers approached the group because the riders were in an area closed to stock, and the rangers had concerns about the group’s food storage in an area frequented by bears. Rangers also had concerns Rammell was guiding without a permit, Nash said.

“I was not outfitting,” Rammell said. “I was on a nice horse ride.”

Rammell pleaded guilty in March to giving false information to park rangers. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Cole in U.S. District Court in Mammoth, Wyo., accepted the plea agreement that fined Rammell $110. He was also banned from the park for a year.

“That’s quite a bit,” Cole said. “But if it’s egregious enough and the defense agrees to it, I usually will accept the plea agreement.”