"The 55-year-old Minnesota man—who became reviled worldwide after he illegally bagged Cecil the lion just outside Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park last month—was busted by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents for taking an illicit trophy in Wisconsin.
Palmer, a veteran bow hunter, shot and killed a huge black bear during a September 2006 trek through the wilds of northern Wisconsin.
Palmer pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making false statements in relation to the bear killing in 2008, officials said.
Decked out in camouflage gear, Palmer knelt next to the bear corpse, propped his bow on its lifeless body and posed with his prize in a photo obtained from the Wisconsin Department Natural Resources by ABC News.
The grinning Palmer had a permit to kill one black bear in one Wisconsin county, but the animal he shot was reportedly 40 miles beyond the county line.
U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said Palmer knew what he did was wrong and offered three guides on the hunt $20,000 to lie about where the bear was killed.
“He was lying to us,” Vaudreuil told ABC’s 20/20. “He was offering to pay, it turns out, about $20,000 to keep the others who were in the hunt, to have them lie, so that’s a fairly aggressive cover-up.”
But the guides didn’t lie.
Palmer pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making false statements in 2008, officials said. He was fined $3,000 and put on one year’s probation.
His latest trophy created a backlash that forced Palmer into hiding in the U.S. and have Zimbabweans pushing for prosecution."