Man involved in poaching ring to serve 33 months for illegal guns

A 36-year-old Pembroke man, who last year was involved in a major poaching ring, was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Bangor to 33 months in prison for possession of firearms by a convicted felon.

Travis L. Stevens also was sentenced to three years of supervised release. He was fined $500 and assessed a $100 special assessment fee.

According to court records, in January of last year during the execution of a search warrant at Stevens’ residence in Pembroke, police found three firearms – a combo military pack rifle, a 12-gauge shotgun and a .410 shotgun. In 1993, Stevens had been convicted of a felony in Washington County Superior Court.

As a felon, Stevens is prohibited from possessing firearms.

The case began as a result of an undercover investigation conducted by the Maine Warden Service. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also assisted with the investigation, which revealed that Stevens had a history of violating fish and game laws and had continued such illegal activity by engaging in unlawful hunting of deer and harbor seals, the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a release.

Although sentenced on the federal charges, Stevens also faces additional charges in Superior Court in Machias.

Last year, the Washington County grand jury indicted Stevens and charged him with six counts of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person, two counts of night hunting and one count each of use or possession of prohibited implements or aids, hunting deer after having killed one and exceeding bag limit in connection with what state wildlife officials called the callous slaughter of animals, including some federally protected species, a rare deer, and two house pets.

First District Attorney for Washington County Paul Cavanaugh said Wednesday that those cases are still pending.

Stevens, Kevin S. Farley Jr., 45, Jeffrey A. Herrick, 42, both of Edmunds and Dennis Stevens, 40, of Pembroke were arrested after a Maine Game Warden went hunting undercover with them. The Stevens men are not related.

Farley was sentenced last year in 4th District Court in Machias to six months in jail and ordered to pay $6,000 in fines for his role in the poaching case. Farley also was involved in the killing of two family pets.

Dennis Stevens, who is facing multiple misdemeanor charges related to the illegal hunting, is scheduled to appear on Feb. 20 in 4th District Court in Calais.

Herrick is scheduled to be sentenced next month in federal court in Bangor for being a felon in possession of a gun. Although he was indicted on the same charge in state court, it is expected to be dismissed once he’s sentenced.

Last fall, the Maine Warden Service uncovered a major poaching ring involving the three men.

Authorities were familiar with the men, including Farley, who was charged in 1988 with night hunting. While poaching isn’t new to the area, Maine warden officials have said that in the past it had largely been done for sustenance in Washington County.

This case reportedly was different.

Authorities said that the men hunted what they wanted when they wanted from squirrels to moose and numerous deer, bucks, does and fawns, even though none of them had hunting licenses. They sometimes used compound bows or a .22-caliber Magnum rifle to hunt more quietly at night.

Other times they were more brazen and reckless, authorities said, including an incident in which one of the men shot at a deer on a road “within close proximity” of a pedestrian.

Not all the animals they shot died immediately. Some reportedly were allowed to wander off and left to die.

Nothing was apparently off limits.

A seal was shot in the waters off Pembroke, while a federally protected raven was caught in traps set for deer and other animals. A raven was pummeled to death and then placed on a bait pile used to attract other animals, authorities said.

Two dogs, Hazel and Daisy, belonging to Penny Guisinger and her husband John Leavitt of Perry were killed.

A white-tailed doe with a rare piebald coloration that rendered it nearly all white became a familiar and welcome sight in Pembroke, where it had given birth to several fawns and became known as the town mascot. The poachers, according to authorities, killed it.

Bangor Daily News reporter Judy Harrison contributed to this report.