PORTLAND – The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday vacated two counts of a six-count conviction against a licensed Maine Guide and affirmed the six-count conviction of another.

Donald Cloutier, 47, of Jaffrey, N.H., and Herman Hoilman, 50, of Newland, N.C., appealed their 2001 convictions in Somerset County Superior Court. Maine’s high court heard oral arguments in September.

The convictions stemmed from a 1999 undercover operation aimed at Bruce Pelletier, 54, of Rockwood, owner of Gentle Ben’s Guide Service and Gentle Ben’s Hunting and Fishing Lodge. Eight people, including Pelletier, also a licensed Maine Guide, were charged with violating a total of 48 fish and game regulations in remote Somerset County townships at the end of the deer hunting season.

The justices set aside Cloutier’s conviction on two counts of knowingly assisting a client in violating the fish and game laws. The court agreed with the defendant’s argument that there was insufficient evidence to uphold that conviction. His conviction on one count of illegally transporting deer and three counts of driving deer was affirmed.

Cloutier was fined a total of $2,000, but half of that should be vacated by Tuesday’s decision. Hoilman was sentenced to 13 days in jail and fined a total of $3,500. His sentence is not expected to change.

Pelletier, whose business was the apparent target of the Maine Warden Service’s investigation, pleaded no contest to 16 counts of violations in March 2002. He was fined $2,000 in a plea agreement.

The licensing status of the three Maine Guides could not be ascertained Tuesday.