Posted on 02/02/2006 7:33:25 AM PST by 11x62
Former NFL star Larry Csonka, the host of a cable television outdoors show, pleaded guilty Wednesday to illegal filming on national forest lands.
As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Csonka pleaded guilty to knowingly conducting work activity in a national forest without obtaining a special use permit.
Csonka agreed to pay $3,887 in restitution for filming about 10 shows on U.S. Forest Service land, said assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Goeke.
At sentencing April 19, Goeke said, prosecutors will request a sentence of probation for one year and a $5,000 fine.
Csonka could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
Csonka is host of "NAPA's North to Alaska," billed as a show on fishing, hunting, history and customs that explores a new area of Alaska each week. The show appears on the Outdoor Life Network.
According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Csonka admitted that his production company, Zonk! Productions, in August 2002 filmed an episode of what was then called "Stihl's North to Alaska" along the Blind River Area on Mitkoff Island in the Tongass National Forest. The episode was broadcast in May 2003.
A crew filmed another episode in September 2005 in the Alaganik Slough at Cordova, part of the Chugach National Forest, and again did not obtain a special use permit for commercial work, prosecutors said.
Csonka agreed that as a condition of probation, he will not film without obtaining all required permits, Goeke said.
According to prosecutors, Zonk! Productions has filmed in Alaska since 1998.
The maximum penalty for the misdemeanor offense is six months in prison, a $10,000 fine and five years probation.
In September, Csonka was one of six people rescued by the Coast Guard during a harrowing night aboard a rolling and pitching 28-foot boat in the Bering Sea.
Csonka, his partner, a film crew and a guide had been hunting for reindeer on remote Umnak Island in the Aleutian Islands while filming an episode for his television show.
Heading to the Aleut village of Nikolski on the southwest side of the island, the vessel encountered 40-knot winds and waves the Coast Guard said were 9 feet high and those on board said reached 20 feet.
Five miles from the village, the skipper sent out a distress call. Villagers used vehicle headlights to try to guide the vessel but high seas pushed the boat away.
A Coast Guard helicopter from Kodiak lifted off the six people on board one by one using a basket. The vessel was abandoned.
Csonka was a much-heralded fullback at Syracuse University and a first-round draft choice by the Miami Dolphins in 1968.
He appeared with the Dolphins in three Super Bowls from 1971 to 1973 and played on the Dolphin team that was 17-0 in 1972.
He retired in January 1980 and was elected to the pro football Hall of Fame in 1987.
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The worst part of it is, the people working in the parks to "protect" them actually act as if they own them.
Like a friend always tells me, "a nickle job with a dime's worth of authority".
This case is just one that underscores the need for "less government".
Ladies and Gentlemen there are millions of federal laws and regulations. The feds can come down on nearly anyone at any time for the flimsiest of reasons. And they can spend an unlimited amount of resources to do it. It is truly amazing.
It's not just Federal lands.
I do some hi-def wildlife filming, and I have an underwater case.
I went to video some Manatees at a state park here, and you would have thought I took a gun to hunt them. The rangers were very heavy in their questioning to assure that I wasn't engaged in commercially filming them. I responded that I knew the rules, including staying at least fifty feet from the manatees, but I explained with zoom and the clarity of the water that was no problem.
They then closed the swimming area down completely.
It's bad enough that I pay 80.00 a year to access the state parks. But if you do want to film commercially on the state parks, you must negotiate the fee with the head ranger at each park. - state sponsored capitalism - ( or good ol boy network) - you choose.
No. They bought the Matthew Lesko book and now they know how to get the government to PAY FOR THEIR VIDEO!!!!!!!!!???????
" . . . some guy in it tells me they're shooting the "XXXX XXXXXX" show, and I'm going to have to leave the area."
You know what, I have fished in tournaments, although I prefer fishing just for fun. However, if somebody in a tournament, or a tournament official, ever comes up to me on a lake and tells me I have to leave, I'll remind him/her that this is a PUBLIC resource, and that the tournament organization is making a profit off of a PUBLIC resource.
I'd tell him he has NO BUSINESS/Authority ordering me off a public resource. Then I'd get the tournament director's name and phone number, report this idiot, and threaten to contact the state wildife agency, local officials, etc. Believe you me, the tournament director will freak!!!!
Then, MineralMan, I think I'd of stayed in that spot just to aggravate the idiot. I'd hold a rock throwing contest or something (not at the anglers, but in the spot they are fishing). Heck, I might even have to go wading, swimming if the weather permits. I've always wanted to be a movie star and this would be a good chance (grin). This guy was WAY out of line, and I can't think of any tournament director that would condon his actions.
On most major reservoirs, where big tournaments are held, there is no permit required (except maybe to launch your boat).
Let this be a warning to those who would even think about developmen of energy in Alaska.
if larry was driving an SUV, tack on another year!
Soooo....when that bear jumps outta the trees, and I don't have a permit to film a BEAR, I'm illegal? /sarcasm.....sorry, but, I want my America back.
I was going to suggest you also take a leak off the front of the boat....until I read your screen name, LOL!
Was there ever a more brusing fullback? The Zonk could carry an entire defense on his back and lumber 30 yards.
I'll bet he didn't even have any gay or lesbian employees either. How can you have a wilderness/wide-open-spaces movie without gay people?
Oh the humanity...
I can see how federal lands might require a use permit for commercial uses, but...
How can it be a criminal offense, punishable by imprisonment, to use and film on HIS OWN land?
Aren't federal lands owned by all of us?
That obviously wouldn't be a choice :)
Unless, of course, I wanted to cause a mass exodus of bass boats from the area :) That'd really mess up the fishing.
SU Football grad hard at work.......he needs a lawyer!
I got to watch him play at SU's old Archibald Stadium....those were the days.
Pretty unusual to have the Feds request probation. Hard to get noticed and climb the ladder in the U.S. attorneys heirarchy with that sentence.
Or maybe it's a trivial matter that could have been handled with a warning, but the Feds had to flex their muscles to show how powerful they are.
I imagine that Michael Moore applied for permits to film on public land as well.
Please show WHERE in the constitution this requirement is justified!
You can't find it either?
Maybe because it does not exist?
Just Fed's doing what Fed's do, without justification or accountability.
Good to see you back. Where ya been?
I look at this as a clearcut (pardon the pun) way for the feds to censure any reporting they don't approve. And I am adament about PUBLIC lands (bought, paid for, and managed by/for the PUBLIC) remaining public property, not the property of some beaurecrats (not to be confused with Beauregard, which I also can't spell correctly without a dictionary).
I agree with another freeper, it was probably the only charge they could get to stick -- Another reason I think the policy stinks.
Oh well, the Outdoor Writers Association of America, of which I am a former member, will probably agree and make the poor old guy quit paying dues. What punishment!!!!
I quit paying them in 2000, when the Clinton Administration and the "environmental" lobby (mouthpiece)within took charge of the organization.
Must partially explain why they are in trouble now.
I respectfully DISAGREE with this policy, which I think is selectively enforced.
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