ELLSWORTH, Maine — An Eastbrook man who was facing more than 50 criminal charges, the lion’s share of which were for hunting violations, was sentenced Tuesday to serve eight months behind bars.
Ralph Fowler, 44, pleaded guilty to 26 charges, with the rest being dismissed, as part of a plea deal with the Hancock County district attorney’s office, Fowler’s defense attorney, Will Blaisdell, said Tuesday. Fowler also was ordered by Justice Robert Murray to pay $12,000 in fines and to serve one year of probation after he is released from jail.
Blaisdell said that all the charges Fowler pleaded guilty to are misdemeanors, meaning he will not be prohibited from possessing firearms once his sentence is complete. He will be barred from possessing firearms as part of his conditions during his yearlong probation, Blaisdell said.
Had the case gone to trial, the defense attorney said, the trial could have taken four days to complete without any guarantee either of acquittal or conviction. As part of the plea deal, he added, a felony charge of aggravated cruelty to animals was reduced to a misdemeanor.
“It was a good resolution for everybody,” Blaisdell said of the plea agreement.
Matt Foster, district attorney for Hancock County, said Tuesday that having to serve eight months behind bars and pay $12,000 is significant compared to most hunting violation cases. Typically, convictions on the most severe hunting charges such as night hunting result in spending a day or two in jail, while most hunting charges carry only fines as punishment.
“That’s a pretty hefty sentence,” Foster said. “Most hunting convictions don’t have mandatory jail sentences.”
Among the charges Fowler faced were one each of operating a motor vehicle after suspension, trespassing, drug possession and violating conditions of release. The rest were hunting charges.
Fowler’s sentence was stayed for two weeks, until 9 a.m. Tuesday, May 17, to give him time to take care of some personal matters before he begins serving his jail time. Murray set a fine payment schedule of $150 per month that is expected to start 60 days after Fowler is released from jail.
According to an affidavit filed in Hancock County Unified Criminal Court, after receiving information about Fowler’s activities, the Maine Warden Service decided in September 2012 to investigate whether Fowler may have been committing “serious” hunting violations. A warden working undercover became acquainted with Fowler soon thereafter.
On the evening of Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014, the undercover officer met with Fowler to go deer hunting in Lamoine, warden service officials wrote in the affidavit. The duo 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 it.
From that one incident, wardens charged Fowler with 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 these acts are violations of Maine hunting laws.
Foster said that the list of charges Fowler faced stemmed from multiple incidents that came to light during the warden service investigation.
“Fowler is an intentional violator of hunting laws with an extensive history of fish and game violations dating back to the 1980s,” Lt. Dan Scott of the warden service said in a prepared statement at the time of Fowler’s arrest on the charges in January 2015. “Fowler displayed a complete disregard for season and bag limits and was having an impact on local deer populations.”
