Castle Creek Outfitters
Minnesota Black Bear and Whitetail Guide Service.

Posted on Thu, Aug. 17, 2006

 

Bear wasn't 'penned' for hunt, singer says

COURTS: Troy Lee Gentry's attorney disputes the indictment, saying Gentry believed killing the bear was legal.

BY DAVID HAWLEY

ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS

 

 

Submitted Photo/Middleton Evans

 

Cubby, this 600-pound black bear, was allegedly killed illegally by country singer Troy Lee Gentry. An attorney for Gentry said his client is pleading not guilty.

§                     Country singer charged with shooting bear in cage

ST. PAUL - Country vocalist Troy Lee Gentry bagged a Minnesota black bear in 2004, but his lawyer said Wednesday that federal prosecutors are trying to kill his client's reputation before he goes to trial.

"A lot of people are making jokes of this, but for him it is no joke," said Minneapolis lawyer Ron Meshbesher. Meshbesher said a federal indictment accusing Gentry of killing the bear that was "enclosed in a pen" was misleading.

"No. 1, the bear was not killed in a cage," Meshbesher said. "The bear was roaming around in a fenced area of several acres, and my client spent almost two hours in a tree stand before he got a clear shot with a bow and arrow."

On Tuesday, federal authorities unsealed an indictment charging Gentry and the owner of a Sandstone, Minn., wildlife refuge with shooting a tame black bear with a bow and arrow and then tagging it as if it had been killed in the wild.

The indictment also said Gentry and Minnesota Wildlife Connection owner Lee Marvin Greenly cooked up a fake videotape that depicted the killing of the captive animal as a "fair-chase" hunting situation.

Gentry, 39, performs with the duo Montgomery Gentry. He "is extremely distraught about these allegations," Meshbesher said Wednesday. "He prides himself as an environmentalist and an avid hunter who respects the fish and game laws of the United States."

An acre is about the size of a football field without the end zones. A videotape depicting Gentry hunting the bear in October 2004 was made for Gentry's private use, Meshbesher said, adding that any editing was done to remove the "dead time" spent waiting in the tree stand. In all, the length of the tape was cut from more than an hour to 15 minutes, he said.

"They never edited the videotape to make it look like something it wasn't," Meshbesher said. "Nothing was done to hide the fact that this (hunt) occurred the way it occurred."

A spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis said federal authorities would not comment on Meshbesher's assertions.

Word of the death of Cubby, a huge black bear, saddened wildlife photographers who have paid fees over the years to take "controlled" photographs of wild animals at Greenly's 80-acre Minnesota Wildlife Connection on the Kettle River near Sandstone. The practice is controversial among professional outdoor photographers though generally considered legitimate if captions acknowledge how the pictures were obtained.

"Everybody loved Cubby," said Rick Hobbs, a Colorado photographer who paid for photo sessions at the refuge for five or six years in the 1990s.

"He was a huge bear, maybe 600 pounds, which is twice the size of a normal black bear you'd find in the wild," Hobbs said. "He was just a big lumbering guy, which is probably why everybody loved him."

Middleton Evans, a Baltimore wildlife photographer, said he photographed Cubby many times.

"It's sad to hear that he's gone," Evans said. Hobbs and Evans said they haven't shot photos at Greenly's refuge in several years. Greenly, 46, also was indicted on a number of charges unrelated to the hunt with Gentry. His attorney, Robert Malone of St. Paul, said his client is pleading not guilty to all the charges.

The indictment said Greenly sold the bear to Gentry for $4,650. The death of the "trophy-caliber" bear was videotaped and Gentry's Minnesota hunting license was used when the animal was registered with the state Department of Natural Resources as if it had been killed from a wild population, the indictment charged.

The hide was then shipped to a Kentucky taxidermist and was later delivered to Gentry's home in Nashville, Tenn., the indictment said.

According to federal officials, the tagging violated state game laws and the interstate transportation of the carcass invoked provisions of the century-old federal Lacey Act, which covers the treatment of wildlife in the United States.

Meshbesher and Gentry's Nashville manager, Johnny Dorris, said Gentry thought everything he was doing was legal.

"He relied on the knowledge and expertise of the local guide to obtain the proper permit," Dorris said in a prepared statement. "Troy felt what he did was legal and in full compliance of the law and was surprised to hear of the indictment."

Gentry and Greenly appeared Tuesday before a federal magistrate judge in Duluth and were released without bail.