I know this fellow a little. Seems like a decent enough guy (even through the last time we spoke he was yelling at me about a column I wrote about him) and I'd have to believe him if he said he thought he was on BLM land.
That said, what he believed isn't as important as reality.
State game director convicted of illegally killing deer
The Associated Press
CARRIZOZO, N.M.—The director of the state Department of Game and Fish has been convicted of shooting a deer without permission on land in southeastern New Mexico.
Lincoln County Magistrate Martha Proctor sentenced Bruce Thompson to 182 days in jail Monday but suspended the time and placed him on probation. The conditions of Thompson's unsupervised probation require that he not violate any local, state or federal laws for 182 days.
Thompson also was ordered to pay a $500 fine. He had pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge.
Thompson still faces a related misdemeanor count of unlawfully hunting or possessing a protected species. He has pleaded not guilty to that charge. A jury trial is scheduled for April 21 in Carrizozo.
The charges had stemmed from a Nov. 17 hunt on the Diamond T Ranch west of Roswell in which Thompson shot a deer. It is illegal to hunt on private property in New Mexico without permission from the landowner.
Thompson, who had a valid deer hunting license, had said he believed he was on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land, based on coordinates entered in his GPS unit.
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