Originally Posted By: Aitken Independent Age

Three men who hunt deer on their land in Aitkin County continue to fight charges of hunting over bait for which their guns were confiscated last fall by the DNR.

Mark Allaman, his son Jeff Allaman and his son-in-law Daniel Miller, appeared in Aitkin County District Court on June 9.

Judge John Solien conducted the pretrial hearing, where Ben Smith, assistant county attorney, represented the state and Erick Kaardal and James Magnuson of Mohrman and Kaardal, Minneapolis, represented the defendants.

The defense was asking for the charges to be dismissed, alleging entrapment by DNR officers and that the deer baiting statute is unconstitutional due to its vagueness.

It was conducted somewhat like a trial before the judge, with the defendants and state witness taking the stand.

Three DNR officers: Tom Provost, Brent Speldrich and Andy Schmidt were also present. Schmidt sat with the prosecuting attorney but only Speldrich testified.

Mark Allaman, Forest Lake, said he'd been hunting for 40 years in Aitkin County and has hunted deer on his land north of Big Sandy Lake on Hwy. 65 for about five years. Of their party, only his son's wife has taken a deer there.

It was clarified that the family does feed deer and other wildlife but they claim that they filled their wildlife feeder with a 50-lb bag of feed on Labor Day weekend and by early October, the automatic feed dispensing system they installed didn't work as the solar battery had leaked.The barrel that held the feed was rigged up on a pulley system between two trees with the automatic feed dispenser and its motor underneath. Family members said it dispensed about a half pound of feed per day.

He said they returned to the property on Oct. 24 to tighten the spinner plate in the dispenser so no feed would spill onto the ground.

Mark Allaman said that only hulls and husks were left on the ground.

He said that on deer hunting opener, Nov, 8, 2008, the three men took positions that were 800-2,000 feet from the feeder station and were shocked when they were arrested by the DNR and charged with hunting over bait and had their guns confiscated.

Allaman and the two other family members testified that they had no sight lines to the wildlife feeding station.

"What the DNR did was overzealous and they were wrong," said Mark. "We didn't have grain on the ground - just husks and chaff. For us to have to go through the hell we've gone through in the last six months is unjustified."

The two other family members also testified. All said they were law-abiding citizens and would not intentionally bait deer. They verified when they made trips to the property, that the battery quit working in early Oct. and they tightened the plate by Oct. 24 so no feed would spill on the ground - still falling into the 10-day window prior to the season opener when feeding would have to stop.

Jeff Allaman, Stacy, said: "We are not operators. We understand the laws and abide by the laws."

Daniel Miller, Ham Lake, said they were absolutely not baiting deer. "If we were baiting we'd have piles of corn there and all of us hunting near the feeder. We are good citizens. We never had a run-in with the DNR. We're not out to slaughter every deer that goes by."

The Allaman-Miller family has said the the DNR conservation officer caused feed to fall on the ground, thereby entrapping them.

Officer Speldrich testified. The three officers were kept sequestered from one another during testimony because their police report is being questioned by the defense.

Speldrich said that he has an eight-foot reach and that he was on their property on Oct. 20, Nov. 6 and Nov. 8.

He said that he "touched the feeder and kernels of feed came out of the feeder. I tipped it and you could see kernels of corn on what I'll call the spinner. No more than half dozen kernels fell on the ground."

While the defendants have claimed that Speldrich tipped over the feeder, he said he just touched the bottom, causing it to "swing a little," and the feed came off the spinner plate. He said "I was reaching up eight feet in the air and it swayed a few inches but it wasn't cocked to one side."

Solien denied the motion to dismiss the charges and said that Speldrich's actions on the property on Oct. 20: "Don't come close to meeting the rules of entrapment." He will rule on the constitutionality of the baiting statute within 90 days.

"While it's not the best statute I'm not going to say it's unconstitutional on its face," said Solien.

The defense said that the statute is vague and it could mean that any deer that ate feed anywhere on a 100-acre property and then was shot could cause the hunter to get charged with hunting over bait. They said DNR officers have too much latitude in interpreting the law.

Smith argued that it is the nature of criminal law that statutes have to be general enough to apply to everyone and specific enough to help determine when a crime is committed.

"That's why we have juries," said Smith.

"DNR violations in particular are particularly contentious to the violators," said Smith. Where DNR law is concerned, violators are often otherwise law-abiding people and not "evil people. The DNR is protecting the resources of Minnesota," he said.

The defendants said that they were offered a plea agreement to plead guilty and get their guns back but they would not accept it.