In western Colorado, two employees of the American Fish and Wildlife Service pleaded guilty to charges of killing a trophy-class bull elk. The two men -Thad Bingham, 44 years old and Brian Scheer, 45, pleaded guilty. They were charged to trespassing on private land which was then closed for hunting. This was announced by the Colorado Parks and Wildlife official spokesman Mike Porras.

Bingham and Scheer work for Fish and Wildlife Service at the Horsethief Canyon Native Fish Facility Ponds, not far away from Fruita.

Bingham was also charged and pleaded guilty to illegal wildlife possession. The man shot the elk with a bow and arrow, explained Porras. 

The investigation of the two men’s crime began when Bingham posted online a photo of himself and the elk online. The state officers recognized that the area on the photo was off-limits to hunting.

Then the officers obtained warrants and found those elk's antlers from the photo at Bingham's home.
The Fish and Wildlife Service official spokeswoman Anna Munoz explained that both men still work for the wildlife agency. She did not give information whether the service actually took any action against its employees.

According to JT Romatzke, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife area wildlife manager all people are subject to the same laws, rules and regulations and no exceptions are being made.

Romatzke states that the wildlife agency employees are supposed to give a good example. Instead, they got involved in law violations. That was a real shame according to him.

He also stated that the investigators did a good job to prove the crime. He stressed that when someone commits a wildlife crime, it does not matter who they are. The investigators will do their job and find the violator. According to Romatzke the Colorado wardens know excellently the territory and would not ignore any wildlife violation. They are well-trained and their mission is to bring poachers to justice, no matter who the violators are. Obviously, they are really dedicated to their job and managed to deal with Bingham and Scheer.

The wildlife investigators succeeded also to identify and find the other two men who were involved in the hunt and violated the law. The other two criminal were Josh Fitzsimmons, 45 years and Barrett Rowles, 48 years. They also pleaded guilty to trespassing.

The court decided that Bingham will befined $200 and will be ordered to donate $5,000. The amount will go to the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. The other three criminals will pay a fine of $86 each.

Also, all the four men might have their fishing and hunting privileges suspended in Colorado and 43 other wildlife violator compact for a period of five years. This decision will be taken at a future hearing. Such suspension seems quite fair for wildlife officers who violate the wildlife laws and hope to get away with this. Also, it will probably have much more influence on the four criminals than the fines.