Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King charged with illegal moose kill
Published Thursday, April 10, 2008
ANCHORAGE — Four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King has been charged with illegally killing a moose inside Denali National Park and Preserve.
According to charging documents, King, who finished second this year in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, also illegally drove an all-terrain vehicle inside the park. Both charges are misdemeanors.
The case was investigated by national park rangers. Denali spokeswoman Kris Fister said the moose kill site was inside the north border of the park. King was hunting in the area last September and had set up camp about a third of a mile north of the park boundary, Fister said.
King said Wednesday that he was not aware he’d been charged with anything and declined comment.
King was hunting last September out of a camp about a third of a mile north of the Denali park boundary, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Fairbanks by park ranger John Leonard. Leonard and an Alaska state trooper, conducting a hunting patrol, found King at his camp with parts from a freshly killed bull moose, along with an ARGO vehicle, the document says.
Charging documents say King said he’d hunted in the area for the past nine years and was using a GPS, so he was familiar with the border. He also told the investigators that he had seen a silver park boundary marker.
A subsequent search turned up a bone pile about 300 feet north of the park boundary and a mile from King’s camp. However, the bones apparently had been moved from the kill site, which was inside the park boundary about three quarters of a mile from King’s camp and clearly visible from it, the affidavit says.
Tire tracks between the kill site and the bone pile looked like tracks left by an ARGO, the affidavit says.
Moose cannot be taken inside the national park except by qualified federal subsistence users, and the affidavit says King was not a qualified subsistence hunter.
Each of the charges carry a penalty of up to six months in prison and a maximum $5,000 fine, assistant U.S. attorney Stephen Cooper said. King’s arraignment is scheduled for May 8.
Comments
I say maximum penalty for a person who knows the boundry has a GPS and still kills a moose inside the park. Your celebrity status cant protect you - your not hot like Britney Spears
If the accounts of the Fed and Trooper ar eaccurate, it appears that ol' Jeff, or someone very near to his camp, knowlingly moved the bone pile from the kill site, probably in an effort to conceal the original location of the kill. If so, where's the 'tempering with evidence' and 'obstruction' charges??
I wonder what his sponsors at Cabella's will make of this??
If I recall, this is the same Jeff King who made a statement to a friend of mine at a booth at the Tanana Valley Fair about 7-1/2 years prior, something like 'they ought to jail all of those pot smokers.' And those he wanted jailed, weren't even necessarily misusing public resources in thier purported 'crimes,' unlike Mr. King, whose crime -directly- involves a public resource.
Karma, anyone??
Typo corrections;
Should've read, 'If the accounts of the Fed and Trooper are accurate...', not '.. ar eaccurate....'
and
Should've read, 'evidence tampering' not 'evidence tempering.'
Sorry, the excitement of the moment over-took my typing fingers, causing utter chaos to the hunt-and-peck technique that both fingers are generally able to perform well with..
He should be treated just like anyone else charged thus, no worse, no better.
It's about time there were comments! I'm surprised that only a few have chosen to comment! This is a serious offense! I hope he gets the jail time! That just gives honest hunters a bad rap!
I find Jeff King: NOT GUILTY. Under Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution of the United States; the National Park Service shouldn't even exist. Furthermore, under the 10th Amendment, Jeff King is within his rights as long as he obeys state game and land use laws.
>>>Furthermore, under the 10th Amendment, Jeff King is within his rights as long as he obeys state game and land use laws.<<<
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the State of Alaska's current Fish and Game regs acknowledge the 'no hunting' status in Denali Nat'l Park? (McKinley, for those of us who are often seen as non-conformists).
If state game and fish laws specify that, Dirk; then yes, Jeff King could be charged under state law. I personally would hope that the state hasn't sold out or capitulated to the NPS in such a way, however.
Zman: You think Britney Spears is hot? Ugh!
Yeah Zman, you should get jail time for that one!
Or even worse, Britney time! That would be scarier than any prison cell mate.
I honestly can't believe that there is even ONE person who is on his side! Should he feel that he is above the regulations? He obviously knew what he was doing was wrong why else would he have moved the bones from the kill site? The reasons we have rules and regulations for hunting is so that we can continue to hunt!
How you know? Maybe he cut the head off cause it don't drag good and then drag the rest over to his camp to be close to equipment while he bone it. that area is a big boner of contention anyway... it went into the Park in 1980... but if you live in Cantwell you can hunt there cause you got subsistence rights...even if you just moved to Cantwell couple years ago...Jeff lives way closer to this area on Rock Creek but he don't get subsistence rights cause he don't live in the geographical area that the clowns in DC decided was a traditional subsistence area...those people down in Cantwell didn't traditionally hunt in Rock Creek area cause there wasn't even a way to get between the two places till the road opened in 1970. its a crock... so he got moose...good for him...he can feed him family...that Park boundary is an arbitrary bunch of bull...and you can't find it anyway...
If you're referring to me, I'm not on his side, SoaringEagle. I'm on the side of the U.S. Constitution and the rights it bestows upon the State of Alaska and its people regarding land, wildlife and everything else not authorized for Congress to create under Article 1 Section 8.
DirkWiggedout, I am with you. Jeff, I wish you well, and who amongst us knows, you may have shot that moose in legal area, and it walked into an illegal area. The story does not say. Good luck, my friend, and congratulations for a very successful season racing this winter. Maybe one day we will get that Summit Challenge going again..LOL!!
John Greene
Zman's right. King must pay for his deed and more bad PR for Alaska. How about deportation back to California, his place of origin? Compared King's photo with one of Brit with shaved head. She wins hands down.
How about INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!? This IS America-and better yet, it IS Alaska. I have not respect or disrespect for Mr. King, and no relation to him or admiration for his achiements, but I do believe in justice for all. He may have freaked out and moved his kill AFTER the moose ran from where he shot it, for all we know! And, He may have blatently disobeyed the law, but let's wait before we slander his name around in the mud!
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Once again arrested trialed and convicted in the court of the newpapers. He has been properly convicted in the eyes of this "Peers". My god to have peers like you all. We even have a typing tutors out correcting typos. Next will come the grammer checkers.
Let's have the courts take care of this one because there is something fishy about the whole thing. I read the ADN version and it left a lot out. I think they are holding off with some more information. Patience and we shall see who is right. If convicted he will pay restitution.
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