The Wyoming Game and Fish Department reports that Casper resident Timothy J. Alme was ordered to pay $30,030 and has lost his privilege to hunt or be in the field with anyone hunting for the next 10 years after poaching two mule deer near Lusk.

On Nov. 23 of 2008, Game Warden Shawn Blajszczak received a phone call from Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Andy Jackson concerning a possible poaching case.  Trooper Jackson and fellow officer Karl Southam were investigating a traffic accident involving a guard rail and a pickup truck on Highway 89 near Alpine.

They discovered that the bed of the pickup truck, a white 2008 Dodge, had blood and deer hair in it. The truck was left abandoned along the highway, and a check of the license plate revealed it was registered the Casper resident.

A consented search of Alme’s residence revealed deer meat in the freezer, several sets of deer antlers and pronghorn horns in the garage and a number of deer and pronghorn carcasses in a draw on the property. Four of the deer carcasses – three mule deer and a white-tailed deer – were fresh kills and had the skull caps and antlers removed.

The Game Warden determined two of the mule deer appeared to have been killed within the past week, while the other mule deer and the white-tailed deer were killed a few weeks earlier. Evidence was collected at the scene and from the abandoned pickup and tested. During an interview with Alme and his attorney, Alme confessed to poaching two mule deer Niobrara County. The individual confessed to shooting the deer from the cab of his pickup while stopped along the highway.

Alme was charged with the illegal killing of antlered big game animals without a license during a closed season and shooting a big game animal from a vehicle.