32 head of Bison does not equate with hundreds of acres of carcasses. Its not a particularly good situation, but does it require deceptive reporting? I get a laugh out of the D.A.’s inventive charging. I realize that the meat appears to have been wasted and that Hawn has apparantly deprived the owner of the use and benefit of his beef, but to try to hold Hawn responsible on a lesser felony of cruelty when he did not participate in the “hunt” is a grand stand for emotion by the prosecution. What’s wrong with the class 3 felony for theft in an amount greater than $15,000.
Yah... The “cruelty” charge is a little bizarre. Shooting an animal cannot be construed as cruel in any legal, theoretical or practical sense. Unless of course they were deliberately shooting to wound or using a weapon inappropriate to the type of animal, none of which is in evidence here.
That said, its clearly a bad neighborly thing to do. Plenty of other felonies to construct here I should think.