Learn from my trespassing mistake in Idaho!!!!!

[idahodave]

Reading is really hard apparently. SO many people making up a narrative to fit their position…based on wild conjecture at best and deliberate deception at worst.

The man said exactly what he did…and it violated the law. Furthermore, he admitted he KNEW he was breaking the law.

Can’t believe how many people can’t grasp this. The public education system is failing us.

The OP is not Lex Luther. This isn’t the crime of the century. It’s also not hard to grasp why he got the ticket.

 

[sasquatch]

Wait, at the time the landowners didn’t even know they were a victim or that any trespass was taking place?

To me it seems the LEO was in their pocket already.

Probably would’ve been easier and lesser of a punishment to commit a much bigger crime like usual.


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[roadrunner]

It was posted on the front side. The op was approaching the gate from the back side because he had accessed the road from state land.

Might want to read the provided link in post #220.

Reading is really hard apparently. SO many people making up a narrative to fit their position…based on wild conjecture at best and deliberate deception at worst.

The man said exactly what he did…and it violated the law. Furthermore, he admitted he KNEW he was breaking the law.

Can’t believe how many people can’t grasp this. The public education system is failing us.

The OP is not Lex Luther. This isn’t the crime of the century. It’s also not hard to grasp why he got the ticket.

Read the OP for a 2nd time and then read the information provided with the link in post 220 and then reread the OP for a 3rd time for context.

Then it will make sense why what was done was done. Never said it was justified...

 

[littlerich33]

Good on you for putting yourself out there. Good reminder to the rest of us to always check mapping and know where we are.
Prosecutor recommendations were way over the top.

Something to keep in mind-when LE arrives on scene, it's their job to gather info, as they have no idea if they are coming up on a homicide, or as you say, a parking ticket type violation. While your story was a very minor infraction, making decisions in real time doesn't provide hindsight.

Yes-exercise your right to be quiet!

Feel free to post the "you are a dumbass" comments here but hopefully I can save some other new hunter some stress.

I got my first bull elk in I Idaho last fall on state land. I came up through public land early in the dark and waited for daylight. I got my bull first thing in the morning and got it tagged and bagged very early. I spent the next several hours moving the game bags around to keep them cool while waiting on the other hunters in the group to call it a day. I had the proper tag, weapon and location. As the day progressed I started feeling the need to expedite getting the elk to the processor. See where I am going with this?

A very thin strip of land along the highway below us had been private Potlatch Latch land for decades and the gates were open and the public routinely used the road to access public lands above it. This land is now owned by the billionaire Wilks Brothers and was on OnX. I rode down an unmarked road on my bicycle and the gate at the very bottom was now closed and locked. It was marked private on the opposite side and visible only when on the other side. I should have turned around and rode back up. The gate was about 100 yards from the highway so I tossed my bike over the gate and rode out to the highway. I was on that land for about 90 seconds. Unfortunately for me Idaho Fish and Game drove by as I was getting the elk loaded into a truck to get it to the processor. At this point I still had no clue of the gravity of the situation!! I felt no cause for concern and with a smile went to meet the officer to provide my ID and documents. At that point in my 58 years I had never even had a parking ticket and was new to hunting.

I got a ticket for trespass to hunt and thanks to the Wilks brothers Idaho trespassing laws became a VERY BIG DEAL in 2018. There have been attempts in the legislature to not allow people to buy very small parcels of land to block access to thousands but thus far the billionaire lobbyist have blocked it. The ticketing officer told me I better get an attorney. What?? I rode my bike across a dirt road where there were no people, structures, or farmland and I did not damage anything.

Fast forward 4 months and the best offer from the county prosecutor was loss of my elk, $1500 fine, loss of nationwide hunting privileges for a year, 90 day suspended jail sentence, 40 hours of community service and 1 year of probation. One would think I cut a lock, shot my elk on private land and rolled around in the dirt with the officer. My friends were hunting the same area the day after I got my ticket and the officer was there confirming where my elk carcass was. It was of course exactly where I told him it was. The charges were strictly for being on private land. If I heard this story I would say someone is full of $hit because something is missing here. It is not. I worked side by side with law enforcement for my career and I definitely passed the attitude test and left nothing but bicycle tracks on private land.

I intended to go to a Jury trial based on the charges and it wasn't until the last hearing the prosecutor dropped the suspended jail time and probation. Fortunately the judge was a decent person and advised me, after I pled guilty, of an Idaho law that will show this case as dismissed in one year and will not show up anywhere.

I think the officer had an ax to grind with one of the people in our camp and I got caught up in it.

IMPORTANT LESSONS

1. Know where you are in Idaho and stay off of private land. It is the hunters responsibility to know.

2. SHUT THE **** UP!! The officer did not see anything and had no proof. I was just a naive dumbass. I have friends that are cops and judges and they have always said never say anything. He kept me there for over an hour questioning me a building a case. At one point I said "can I just go to town and plead guilty and pay my fine?" At that point I thought I was dealing with something like a parking ticket. Guess what video clip he submitted without context? If I could do it again I would have provided my documentation politely said nothing else. I will never share seemingly harmless information again.

Okay there is my humiliating story. Hopefully someone learns from this and turns around when onX tells them to and remember STFU! I cant imagine how terrible it would have been if I had damaged private property or shot my elk on private land!

land locking public land is so frustrating I have flirted with this issue many times in the Rockies gotta scale cliffs to stay off there ground it’s such bs

 

[Steve300xcw]

land locking public land is so frustrating I have flirted with this issue many times in the Rockies gotta scale cliffs to stay off there ground it’s such bs

It isnt land locked if you can access it...

 

[Steve300xcw]

Wait, at the time the landowners didn’t even know they were a victim or that any trespass was taking place?

To me it seems the LEO was in their pocket already.

Really?

You need to stop drinking the bong water.

 

[waspocrew]

It isnt land locked if you can access it...

And again - if you choose to hunt it, don't be pissed about not being able to take the easy way out through adjacent private lands.

 

[Rich M]

Law enforement is there to protect and serve the law. Not the individual.

Why have cops if they wont protect school
Kids? Bottom line. What good are they then?

To catch and release repeat offenders who should be dead? Make people nervous on highways?

Leo exists to document the mess after a crime. Criminals usually have more rights than victims. Wt heck?

You sir are part of the problem.

 

[P Carter]

Might want to read the provided link in post #220.



Read the OP for a 2nd time and then read the information provided with the link in post 220 and then reread the OP for a 3rd time for context.

Then it will make sense why what was done was done. Never said it was justified...

You are correct - I misread %220, deleted my post since it was based on a misread, thanks for pointing it out.

 

[Reburn]

Why have cops if they wont protect school
Kids? Bottom line. What good are they then?

To catch and release repeat offenders who should be dead? Make people nervous on highways?

Leo exists to document the mess after a crime. Criminals usually have more rights than victims. Wt heck?

You sir are part of the problem.

I'm the problem because I understand that the cops are the enforcement arm of judicial?
Not here to protect and serve the public.

I never gave my opinion about it one way or the other. You have no idea where I stand on the matter.

I was simply having to give yall a civics lesson since yall dont understand how our goverment works. Thanks for further proving my point.

 

[sasquatch]

Really?

You need to stop drinking the bong water.

No I don't actually, if you don't see how this type/level of charges is ridiculous i cant help you. People commit way bigger crimes and get drug through less mess!

You sound like the type to press charges on a kid who enters your yard to get the soccer ball they accidentally kicked over the fence.

If this was my land i would be pissed at the LEO for making me have to go to court over a guy just trying to retrieve his elk if he created no damage etc etc to my land.

 

[idahodave]

If this was my land i would be pissed at the LEO for making me have to go to court over a guy just trying to retrieve his elk if he created no damage etc etc to my land.

Easy to say when you don’t have any land for people to trespass on. Every single landowner I’ve ever met in my life complains about trespassers…and hunters are by far the worst offenders.

If this was your land you’d have orange everywhere keeping people off of it…exactly like 99 percent of the landowners out there with game on it.

Who can blame them when even when your wishes are read and understood people still ignore them. Now magnify that by 1,000 times as every other chit head with a license does the same. If this thread is any indication, it’s at least that many.

 

[Teodoro]

Every single landowner I’ve ever met in my life complains about trespassers…and hunters are by far the worst offenders.

Actually, for me, worst offenders were the actual masked robbers who cut through our woods.

#2 was the road worker who took a dump on the path around my pond.

 

[sasquatch]

Easy to say when you don’t have any land for people to trespass on. Every single landowner I’ve ever met in my life complains about trespassers…and hunters are by far the worst offenders.

If this was your land you’d have orange everywhere keeping people off of it…exactly like 99 percent of the landowners out there with game on it.

Who can blame them when even when your wishes are read and understood people still ignore them. Now magnify that by 1,000 times as every other chit head with a license does the same. If this thread is any indication, it’s at least that many.

JUST ABOUT EVERYONE has land for someone to trespass on including me. Just owning a home means you have property to trespass on. You have no idea what i own or lease, or have sole rights too. all of which end up being the same when it comes to a trespass. I grew up back when these type things weren't near what they are now and I never forgot where
I came from.

 

[WeiserBucks]

I think one thing that people are missing is that Idaho put the mandatory license suspension right in the regulations in the section regarding trespassing. It's almost like they're warning people ahead of time that trespassing is illegal and comes with stiff penalties.

 

[Zzyzx]

Furthermore, he admitted he KNEW he was breaking the law.
..,

Nope. He said the gate wasn’t signed where he threw his bike over.

Idaho law is clear that such a gate/entrance needs signage/notice.

 

[bdg848]

Yeah, you broke the law, I don't need to address that, but As a cop myself, I wouldn't even volunteer info to the cops lol. It's our (cops) job to investigate to determine IF a crime occurred, not anyone else's job to help with that investigation. In some circumstances Officers can detain you and identify you if they can truly articulate a crime that you likely committed, but again, It's no one else's job to help me articulate what crime that may have been. If I (acting as an officer) can't even say a crime has occurred (loading meat into a vehicle on the side of the road isn't a crime), then be on your way, good day. Nothing grinds my gears more than the citizen complaint of "oh there's a guy sitting on a bench over there, I want you to go interrogate him" and then the officer actually doing it....and then demanding ID simply because "we got a call on you".....so what? And Game wardens are the worst offenders, too. They'll search your whole boat with no warrant just to make sure you have a safety whistle on board....If I started searching private property the way they do, I'd be spending most of my week in federal court getting dragged over the coals regarding the blatant 4th amendment violations.....Oh, but the game warden wants to make sure the fish are all 12 inches and not 11? No problem! I also don't trust those "family services" women any further than I can throw them (which since they are all 230+ pounds, that isn't very far), but that's a totally separate kind of government overreach....anyway, be polite, don't volunteer information, definitely don't talk to family services. Rant over. LOL

 

[Zzyzx]

OP trespassed, knew it and got caught. …

He only had knowledge later. The Wilks brothers didn’t meet the sign/notice requirements of Idaho law. On the back side gate where OP entered.

 

[WeiserBucks]

Nope. He said the gate wasn’t signed where he threw his bike over.

Idaho law is clear that such a gate/entrance needs signage/notice.

He said the gate was posted.

 

[cmahoney]

Yeah, you broke the law, I don't need to address that, but As a cop myself, I wouldn't even volunteer info to the cops lol. It's our (cops) job to investigate to determine IF a crime occurred, not anyone else's job to help with that investigation. In some circumstances Officers can detain you and identify you if they can truly articulate a crime that you likely committed, but again, It's no one else's job to help me articulate what crime that may have been. If I (acting as an officer) can't even say a crime has occurred (loading meat into a vehicle on the side of the road isn't a crime), then be on your way, good day. Nothing grinds my gears more than the citizen complaint of "oh there's a guy sitting on a bench over there, I want you to go interrogate him" and then the officer actually doing it....and then demanding ID simply because "we got a call on you".....so what? And Game wardens are the worst offenders, too. They'll search your whole boat with no warrant just to make sure you have a safety whistle on board....If I started searching private property the way they do, I'd be spending most of my week in federal court getting dragged over the coals regarding the blatant 4th amendment violations.....Oh, but the game warden wants to make sure the fish are all 12 inches and not 11? No problem! I also don't trust those "family services" women any further than I can throw them (which since they are all 230+ pounds, that isn't very far), but that's a totally separate kind of government overreach....anyway, be polite, don't volunteer information, definitely don't talk to family services. Rant over. LOL

230? Maybe in their first year on the job. They are 3 bills easy.


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