Supreme Court Denies Poachers Appeal

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The Montana Supreme Court has unanimously denied the appeal of an Ethridge man convicted of poaching.

Lin Torgerson, who was convicted July 2006 by a Toole County district court jury for possession of an unlawfully killed whitetail deer and unlawful possession of golden eagle parts, had asked the state supreme court to overturn his misdemeanor convictions.

He said the district court should not have allowed testimony from either his ex-wife or a state game warden, claimed misconduct by the prosecutor and asked to suppress evidence gathered in searches of his house and Torgerson Implement, a family business.

Besides the golden eagle parts, Torgerson, 32, originally was charged with unlawful possession of four whitetail bucks he allegedly killed either outside of hunting season or with a spotlight.

The jury acquitted him of three of the deer charges.

He was sentenced to a year in the Toole county jail, suspended; $6,035 fines, costs and restitution; and loss of privileges to hunt and trap for three years.

In an Aug. 26 opinion, the supreme court not only struck down each part of Torgerson’s appeal, asserting the evidence sufficient to convict him, but concluded “the evidence would allow a rational trier of fact to find Torgerson guilty of unlawful possession of wildlife, beyond a reasonable doubt, of each of the four deer.”

The case dates to February 2004 when a relative of Torgerson’s appeared at the Fish, Wildlife and Parks Conrad office with information about four illegally killed whitetail bucks.

FWP game wardens obtained a search warrant for Torgerson’s residence and his family’s business, where they seized mounts, antlers, photographs and a golden eagle skull and feathers.

At the July 2006 trial Torgerson testified that he killed two of the deer legally, denied shooting a third and said he found the fourth deer dead in a field.

He also suggested his ex-wife or game wardens may have planted the eagle parts in his home.