Crime & Courts

Wasilla guide gets fine, license suspension in game case

After four years of investigations and four separate criminal cases brought by the state against a Wasilla-based fishing and hunting guide, an Anchorage Superior Court judge said the prosecution's evidence was unpersuasive and in late July handed down minimal penalties against the guide in the sole unresolved case.

Chad A. Reel of Reel Alaska Trophy Hunts was convicted of unlawful possession or transportation of game and failing to report a guide violation, both misdemeanors. His business was involuntarily dissolved in 2013, according to state records.

Superior Court Judge Philip Volland imposed $1,000 fines for each charge and suspended Reel's guiding license for three years. The misdemeanors each carried maximum fines of $10,000 and up to a year in jail.

A wildlife trooper said at Reel's sentencing that the case illustrates the difficulty of investigating and prosecuting fish and game violations -- 95 Alaska wildlife troopers are in charge of policing the entire state. Piecing together evidence of alleged violations committed in inaccessible areas is a daunting task for authorities, an Alaska State Trooper testified.

Reel's defense attorney, Kevin Fitzgerald, characterized the state's case against his client as a "witch hunt."

In 2013, Reel was charged with 21 separate criminal counts, including six felonies. The charges related to separate events and witnesses; they were eventually separated into four trials.

"To say the state threw the proverbial kitchen sink at Reel would be an understatement," Fitzgerald wrote in his sentencing memorandum.

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Multiple charges were dismissed and two cases were dismissed before they were tried. Reel's third case involved falsifying business records and resulted in a two-week trial in 2014. The jury acquitted Reel.

The fourth case led to a five-week trial that started in February in which the guide originally faced 13 criminal counts, including five felonies. Several charges were dismissed during trial over the credibility of one of the state's witnesses.

In the end, jurors found Reel guilty of the two misdemeanors.

The state says Reel covered up a client's illegal sheep kill in August 2010. Instead of reporting the violation, he tried to hide it, making "a business decision based on the remote chance that he would be caught committing his crimes," the state's sentencing memorandum says.

Sentencing remarks indicated a camp of hunters debated whether one of Reel's clients killed a sheep in violation of size regulations. At the camp was an undercover agent the wildlife troopers hired to watch Reel. The state says Reel ignored the hunters' concerns.

"Every time Reel is in the field hunting … he or someone he is with commits a fish and game violation, and every time that happens, Reel pretends he doesn't know anything about it," the state argued.

The state called trooper Maj. Bernard Chastain to testify during Reel's sentencing. He said troopers had received multiple complaints against Reel over the years.

"Were the troopers out to get Reel?" assistant attorney general Arne Soldwedel asked Chastain.

"No, but we're out to get commercial violators. It's a priority for our division, because those violations tend to be reoccurring," Chastain said, adding such investigations drain law enforcement resources.

Fitzgerald questioned the trooper about just how much had been spent pursuing charges against his client. Chastain said he wasn't sure of the total cost, but said hiring the undercover hunter cost up to $30,000.

Judge Volland appeared unmoved by the testimony about the difficulties of bringing cases against guides.

"Is the state suggesting I should be harsher because it's harder to catch people?" the judge asked.

Soldwedel replied he simply wanted the court to "see the difficultly."

Volland asked the trooper on the stand if state authorities pursued charges against other guides as vigorously as they had for Reel. Chastain said multiple guides are charged every year.

The state also proposed seizing Reel's plane. Soldwedel said Reel's Piper Super Cub was instrumental in the crimes for which he'd been convicted. He argued that forfeiting the plane would prevent Reel from committing hunting violations in the future.

But the judge let Reel keep his plane and indicated he wasn't persuaded by the prosecution's portrayal of Reel as a guide who needed to be reined in.

"I'm not going to proceed on the basis of smoke," Volland said.

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Reel said he's suffered through financial hardship because of the long, drawn-out legal battle.

The conclusion was not the one sought by the state and Soldwedel filed a motion to reconsider what he argues was an illegal sentence.

"It's not OK to use Alaska as your private preserve then get a slap on the wrist," the prosecutor told the judge.

Jerzy Shedlock

Jerzy Shedlock is a former reporter for Alaska Dispatch News. He left the ADN in 2017.

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