Turkey Hunt Fraud Leads To Criminal Charges For Four Florida Men

If you want to know how much the world has changed in the past 25 years, rewatch the movie Knockaround Guys, in which four tough guys from New York city end up going on a series of misadventures in Montana. Today, if some dudes from New York were holed up in a hotel room in Montana, they would scroll through their phones and consume the same content they consume at home. In the early 2000s, however, the only choice was to watch the TV stations that the hotel carried. In the movie, Vin Diesel’s character flips past a show about turkey hunting. On the screen, a hunter watches eagerly as his unsuspecting prey gobbles as it forages for food. Diesel shouts at the screen, “Buy a Butterball!” You and I do not see the allure in hunting wild turkeys, but for some people, it is a way of life. The most dedicated turkey hunters pursue the Grand Slam, where they take one specimen each of the four subspecies of wild turkey native to the United States. The Osceola wild turkey, found only in Florida, is the rarest one, and four men are facing criminal charges for defrauding enthusiastic hunters. If you are facing financial crime charges in connection to your efforts to turn your hobby into a business, contact a West Palm Beach white collar crime lawyer.

Sometimes the Feathers Do Not Make the Turkey

Larry William Collins, Paul Neil Beckham, David Preston Mills, and Vernon Robert Flowers are hunting buddies who have the good fortune to live within the native range of the Osceola wild turkey. They also operate a hunting tour company together, where they guide paying customers on hunting expeditions to catch various species of Florida game. Until recently, their website advertised Osceola turkey hunts, and these activities generated interest, with hunters paying about $2,000 for a turkey hunting tour where the four defendants would take them to hunting grounds where game was plentiful. One client was a dentist who paid in free dental work instead of currency.

One customer took the turkey he had killed on the hunt to a taxidermist to have it mounted as a hunting trophy. The taxidermist noticed that the turkey looked different from the other Osceola wild turkeys he had taxidermied. Its legs and feet were short, like a domestic turkey, and it had more body fat than any wild turkey he had seen. The client reported the tour operators to the police, and the crime lab DNA tested the turkey’s flesh. The DNA test results revealed that the turkey he caught was a cross between two breeds of domestic turkey, so that its feathers looked like an Osceola turkey. The defendants allegedly bred domestic turkeys to look like Osceola turkeys and then turned them loose in the hunting grounds.

Contact a West Palm Beach Criminal Defense Lawyer Today

Attorney William Wallshein has more than 41 years of experience, including five years as a prosecutor in Palm Beach County.  Contact William Wallshein P.A. in West Palm Beach, Florida to discuss your case.

Source:

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