Edmunds man to return to jail for killing seal

BANGOR – An Edmunds man who recently served six months in the Washington County Jail for slaughtering animals, including a neighbor’s pets, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to another six months for killing and attempting to kill federally protected wildlife.

Kevin S. Farley, Jr., 45, also was sentenced to one year of supervised release.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk called the October 2005 incident in which Farley killed a harbor seal “very serious, troubling and disturbing.”

“There was no reason for it,” she said in sentencing Farley, “except that you enjoyed helping yourself to a natural resource of Maine for your own amusement.”

Farley apologized to the court for his actions and said he has given up hunting and his guns.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “This is nothing I ever want to do again. I want to get on with my life, be there for my children, pay my mortgage and meet my financial obligations.

“I just want to say that I’ve changed my life,” Farley said.

The Washington County man, who has a history of hunting violations, pleaded guilty in December to killing a harbor seal, illegally hunting wood ducks and attempting to kill a harbor seal and a cormorant 18 months ago.

Farley was sentenced in September to six months in the Washington County Jail in Machias after pleading guilty to five counts of night hunting and five other charges, including cruelty to animals. He was ordered to pay a $6,000 fine and $500 in restitution to the owners of the pets he killed.

The Maine Warden Service filed charges against Farley in early 2006 after more than a year’s investigation in which a game warden went hunting undercover with Farley.

He admitted in federal court in December that on Oct. 13, 2005, he aimed his rifle at harbor seals at Reversing Falls in Edmunds Township. The next day at a boat landing in Perry, Farley shot a harbor seal in the head and killed it in front of the warden, according to court documents.

That same day, Farley shot and appeared to wound a double-crested cormorant and, later, retrieved a wood duck from a pond in Edmunds he admitted shooting.

At his sentencing in state court, Farley told the judge he didn’t know why he went on the killing spree and blamed the wardens who were working undercover at the time.

He said they befriended him and “pressured” him to kill the animals.

Farley faced up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 on the federal charges. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, the recommended sentence was between six and 12 months.

The judge rejected defense attorney Matthew Erickson’s recommended sentence that Farley be sentenced to probation or 30 days in jail followed by house arrest. That would have allowed him to work at his current landscaping job, the attorney said.

Kravchuk delayed the execution of Farley’s sentence until mid-June so the defendant can attend his son’s high school graduation.