TONAWANDA – On Aug. 30, a defendant pleaded guilty to the illegal taking of deer in a closed area and entered into a civil agreement paying fines totaling $1,502.50 after a nine-month long investigation, according to the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Officials said that on Nov. 18, 2017, opening day of big game season in New York, a witness saw someone cutting up a deer in the woods in the town of Tonawanda – an area closed for big game hunting. This information was shared with DEC law enforcement officials a few days later, and ECOs Tim Machnica and Michael Wozniak responded to the scene to gather physical evidence.
The suspect was not from the area, and ECO Machnica reached out to ECO Jerry Kinney for assistance. The officers located the suspect’s 10-point buck at a taxidermist shop and seized it for DNA comparison. After months of waiting for the results, the DNA data revealed a link to the suspect’s deer. The suspect was issued multiple tickets for the illegal take, possession, and transport of deer, along with failing to properly tag and report the deer harvest.
