Ted Nugent agrees to plead guilty in illegal kill

[April 21, 2012]  ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Rocker and wildlife hunter Ted Nugent has agreed to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in southeast Alaska.

Nugent made the admission in signing a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

Calls seeking comment from Nugent, his Anchorage attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, and assistant U.S. Attorney Jack Schmidt were not immediately returned.

The plea agreement says Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Sukkwan Island days after wounding a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear.

According to the agreement, first reported by the Anchorage Daily News, the six-day hunt was filmed for his Outdoor Channel television show, "Spirit of the Wild." In the hunt, Nugent used a number of bear-baiting sites on U.S. Forest Service property, according to the agreement.

The document says Nugent knowingly possessed and transported the bear in misdemeanor violation of the federal Lacey Act.

Nugent, identified in the agreement as Theodore A. Nugent, agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, according to the agreement, which says he also agreed with a two-year probation, including a special condition that he not hunt or fish in Alaska or Forest Service properties for one year. He also agreed to create a public service announcement that would be broadcast on his show every second week for one year, the document states.

"This PSA will discuss the importance of a hunter's responsibility in knowing the rules and regulations of the hunting activities that they engage in, which is subject to the review and final approval, prior to any broadcast, by a representative of the United States Attorney's Office in the District of Alaska," the agreement says.

Nugent, who signed the document April 14, also agreed to pay the state $600 for the bear that was taken illegally, according to the agreement. He would still need to enter the plea in court and have the plea be approved by a judge.

Nugent -- a conservative activist famed for his 1977 hit "Cat Scratch Fever" -- drew the attention of the Secret Service after he rallied support last weekend for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and said of the Obama administration: "We need to ride into that battlefield and chop their heads off in November." His comments were made during a National Rifle Association meeting in St. Louis.

Nugent said on his website Thursday that he discussed the matter with two agents on Thursday while in Oklahoma.

"The meeting could not have gone better," he said. "I thanked them for their service, we shook hands and went about our business. God bless the good federal agents wherever they may be."

Nugent said he was just speaking figuratively and that he didn't threaten anyone's life or advocate violence.

"Metaphors needn't be explained to educated people," he said.

A Secret Service spokesman has said the issue has been resolved.

With hunting, Nugent has run afoul of the law before.

In August 2010, California revoked Nugent's deer hunting license after he pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of deer-baiting and not having a properly signed tag.

Nugent's loss of that deer hunting license through June 2012 allows 34 other states to revoke the same privilege under the Interstate Wildlife Violator Compact. Each state, however, can interpret and enforce the agreement differently.

[Associated Press; By RACHEL D'ORO]

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