Iowa farmer loses prize antlers to state
An Iowa farmer has lost his fight to keep a valuable set of antlers from a trophy whitetail deer that he claims was suffering from a broken leg when he killed it out of mercy.
Conservation officers with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources seized the 14-point set of antlers from a garage in Marion County in November 2013 as part of an investigation into four Oklahoma men who'd allegedly traveled to Iowa to illegally hunt deer without the proper nonresident licenses they needed.
But Marvin Clark, a longtime farmer, claimed that he shot the deer one year earlier after spotting the buck stuck in a creek bottom with a broken leg. Clark said he shot the deer with his own bow, and the antlers were marked with a landowner/tenant tag issued to Clark when they were seized the next year.
In a November interview, Clark said that he had not yet attached his tag when he chose to cut off the deer's head before moving the 250- to 300-pound animal's body out of the creek. In a Thursday ruling, District Court Judge Paul Huscher said Iowa law clearly reads that a tag must be attached to a harvested deer's antlers "before the carcass is moved to be transported by any means from the place where the deer was taken."
"Clark urges the court should be more concerned with the spirit of the law than the letter of the law," Huscher wrote. "The court finds that Clark complied with neither, and that he has not shown ownership or his right to possession of the deer or any of its parts."
Farmer, DNR square off over prize antlers
The judge also found that Clark waited too long to report the harvested deer to the DNR. Under Iowa law, hunters must report a kill by midnight the day after a harvested deer is tagged, Huscher wrote. Clark did not report harvesting the trophy buck until five days after he claimed to find the suffering deer.
Authorities valued the antlers as being worth between $5,000 to $20,000 in court documents connected to the case.
After seizing the antlers, conservation officers initially charged Clark with a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of a whitetail deer based on his own account of killing the buck and moving the head. The charge was dismissed by a judge in October, but prosecutors sought to permanently seize the antlers under a state forfeiture law that allows law enforcement to keep evidence in criminal cases if it wasn't legally obtained.
Clark's legal battle to have the antlers returned won support from Iowa Rep. Greg Heartsill, R-Chariton, who criticized prosecutors for trying to keep the antlers without winning a criminal conviction. He also called for changes to the state's administrative rules for transporting deer.
But Benjamin Hayek, an assistant Marion County attorney who has since left the office for another job, contended in court documents that Clark's story was "self-serving." There was evidence gathered by conservation officers that suggested the deer was actually illegally shot by an Oklahoma hunter and that Clark later found the animal and used his tag to claim it, he wrote in one brief.
In his ruling, Huscher noted that he made his decision solely on Clark's account of finding the deer, and that he "ignored" any arguments that an Oklahoma hunter was the actual shooter.
William Kutmus, a West Des Moines attorney who represented Clark, said that he doubted the farmer would appeal the judge's ruling. He contended that the seizure of the antlers was based on "technicalities" in the state's law on transporting harvested animals.
Kevin Baskins, a spokesperson for the DNR, said the state agency has not yet made a decision on what to do with the antlers, marked by a distinctive black drop tine jutting from the bottom of the right antler. The antlers could either be destroyed or placed on display for educational purposes to promote the agency's Turn In Poachers program, he said.
"This whole case started with a call to our tip line," he said. "The officers were able to follow up on a tip from the tip line and ultimately the investigation led to this result.”