Three big game guides indicted for conspiracy, Lacey Act violations in relation to mountain lion hunts
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The following is a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of Idaho. | Photo: Envato Elements
POCATELLO – A federal grand jury sitting in Pocatello returned a thirteen-count indictment on Aug. 27, charging Chad Michael Kulow, 44, and Andrea May Major, 44, both of Kuna, along with LaVoy Linton Eborn, 47, of Paris, with conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and additional Lacey Act violations, U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit announced Wednesday.
In connection with illegal big game outfitting and guiding, Kulow was indicted on twelve counts including one felony count of conspiracy and eleven counts of felony Lacey Act violations. Major was indicted on seven counts including one felony count of conspiracy and six felony Lacey Act violations. Eborn was indicted on eight counts including one felony count of conspiracy and seven counts of felony Lacey Act violations.
The thirteen-count indictment alleges that in late 2021, Kulow, Major, and Eborn were licensed guides in the State of Idaho, employed by a licensed outfitter. During late 2021, Kulow, Major, and Eborn conspired together to commit Lacey Act violations, when they began illegally acting in the capacity of outfitters, by independently booking mountain lion hunting clients, accepting direct payment, and guiding hunts in southeast Idaho and Wyoming, outside of the licensed and federally permitted outfitting service for which they worked.
Between December 2021 and February 2022, the defendants unlawfully sold hunts and carried out guiding activities on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest in southeast Idaho and the Bridger-Teton National Forest in western Wyoming. The illegally guided hunts resulted in the kills of at least eleven mountain lions in Idaho, and a Boone and Crockett record mountain lion in western Wyoming.
Several Big Game Mortality Reports were falsely submitted to Idaho Fish and Game with inaccurate outfitter business information, and at least three mountain lions were shipped directly to Texas, without having been presented to Idaho Fish and Game for completion of the required Big Game Mortality Reports. Mountain lions killed during the hunts were transported from National Forest land, to or from Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska, Texas, and North Carolina, in violation of the federal Lacey Act and multiple Idaho state laws.
Kulow and Major were both arrested on Sept. 24 and booked with the U.S. Marshals Service in Boise. Eborn was arrested on Sept. 25 and booked with the U.S. Marshals Service in Pocatello. Major attended her initial court appearance on Sept. 26. Kulow attended his initial court appearance on Sept. 27 and Eborn attended his initial court appearance on Sept. 30.
All three defendants appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Debora K. Grasham and entered not-guilty pleas.
A jury trial is scheduled for Nov. 18 at the federal courthouse in Pocatello, before Senior U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill.
The alleged Lacey Act violations are punishable by up to five years in federal prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and up to three years of supervised release.
This case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Law Enforcement, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Forest Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney Justin Paskett is prosecuting this case.
An indictment is a means of charging a person with criminal activity. It is not evidence. The person is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.