ELLSWORTH, Maine — An Eastbrook man was arrested last week and is facing more than 50 hunting-related charges following an investigation by the Maine Warden Service.
Ralph E. Fowler Jr., 43, was arrested Jan. 23 by officers with Maine Marine Patrol, who located Fowler while he was working as a sternman for a lobster fisherman, according to Cpl. John MacDonald, spokesman for the warden service.
Fowler was arrested on six charges stemming from an incident in Lamoine last fall and was summoned on approximately 50 more hunting violations, which include exceeding the bag limit on deer, hunting moose without a permit, having a loaded gun in a motor vehicle, among others, MacDonald wrote in a prepared statement issued late Wednesday.
“The warrants followed a two-year investigation into illegal hunting activities of Fowler and his associates,” MacDonald wrote in the release, adding that wardens have been receiving complaints about Fowler for a number of years from a variety of sources.
Fowler is one of four Hancock County men charged last week, each with multiple hunting or fishing violations, MacDonald indicated. About 40 game wardens participated in a sweep in Hancock County on Jan. 22, executing multiple search warrants and seizing “illegal deer, guns and other evidence,” according to MacDonald. He declined to release additional details about the search warrants, the items that were seized or about Fowler’s arrest.
The three others who were summoned but not arrested are Troy Jellison, 43, of Sorrento; Russell Burnett, 44, of Franklin; and Carl Philbrick, 70, of Hancock.
“Wardens began to focus enforcement efforts on Fowler due to the blatant disregard he had for wildlife laws and bag limits,” MacDonald said.
An affidavit filed in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court details an incident Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014, in which Fowler is alleged to have committed multiple hunting offenses. The charges stemming from this incident are what resulted in Fowler’s arrest last week.
According to Kevin Anderson, an investigator with the Maine Warden Service, an undercover warden became acquainted with Fowler after officials decided in September 2012 to investigate whether Fowler may have been committing “serious” hunting violations.
“The undercover operative established early in the investigation that Ralph E. Fowler Jr. was predisposed to commit serious hunting crimes,” Anderson said in the affidavit.
On the evening of Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014, the undercover officer met with Fowler to go deer hunting in Lamoine, Anderson wrote in the document. They drove in a pickup truck to Shore Road, where, a few minutes after 9 p.m., Fowler loaded a crossbow, leaned out the passenger side window of the vehicle and shot a doe with the crossbow, according to Anderson.
The investigator wrote that Fowler is accused of hunting more than 30 minutes after sunset, hunting on a Sunday, hunting or possessing an antlerless deer without a permit, hunting when the season is closed, shooting from a motor vehicle and hunting from a paved public way — all of which are violations of Maine hunting laws.
“Fowler is an intentional violator of hunting laws with an extensive history of fish and game violations dating back to the 1980s,” Lt. Scott said in the statement. “Fowler displayed a complete disregard for season and bag limits and was having an impact on local deer populations.”
Among Fowler’s associates, Philbrick was summoned last week on nine charges. He faces three counts each of having a loaded gun in a motor vehicle and operating a motor vehicle after suspension, two counts of hunting deer during closed season and one count of taking smelts over the legal limit, according to MacDonald.
Jellison has been charged with false registration of a deer, possession of a deer killed during the closed season and unsworn falsification. Burnett has been charged with possession of an antlerless deer without a permit and possession of an unregistered deer, MacDonald added. Details about incidents that led to the charges against the other men were unavailable Thursday morning.
Wardens are working with the Hancock County district attorney’s office and expect more people will be charged as a result of the investigation, according to MacDonald.
