Nugent fined for baiting deer on TV

Rock star and gun rights advocate Ted Nugent was fined $1,750 today in Yuba County Superior Court after pleading no contest to baiting deer on his hunting show “Spirit of the Wild.”

Yuba City attorney Jack Kopp, representing Theodore Anthony Nugent, 61, entered a no contest plea to Department of Fish and Game charges of baiting deer and not having a deer tag “countersigned” at the closest possible location, said Deputy District Attorney John Vacek.

Baiting deer is legal in some states but not in California, said state Fish and Game spokesman Patrick Foy. Baiting supplies are sold at some outdoor stores, he said.

The deer was killed in El Dorado County toward the end of deer hunting season last fall but brought to Yuba County. Two co-defendants, Mitchell Neil Moore and Ross Albert Patterson, live in Yuba County, said Vacek.

Moore was a photographer on the show. The role of Patterson, who pleaded no contest to taking an animal with bait, was not clear, said Foy.

Moore and Patterson also were represented by Kopp and did not appear in court. Moore, who pleaded no contest to possessing an animal illegally, agreed to a fine of $700. Patterson agreed to a fine of $1,225, Kopp told Judge James F. Dawson.

All three men were ordered to pay the fines by Oct. 1.

Nugent was originally facing a charge of killing a “spike” — an immature buck — on the program but the charge was dropped during negotiations between his attorney and the Yuba County District Attorney’s Office, said Foy.

A spike is a deer with two antlers that have not yet “forked,” Foy said.

A Department of Fish and Game warden saw the show in March and “just about fell out of his chair” when he saw Nugent with the buck, according to Foy.

A subsequent investigation led to the baiting charge. A search warrant was served in April at Moore’s home in Yuba County, said Foy.

Foy said Nugent was “very cooperative” when contacted in March after the show aired.

Nugent is on a concert tour this week, according to his website. He performed his 6,000th concert in 2008 in front of his hometown fans in Detroit.

Noted for his riffs on a Gibson Byrdland electric guitar, “The Nuge” had several multi-platinum albums released in the 1970s, including “Ted Nugent,” “Free for All,” and “Cat Scratch Fever.” A live album, “Double Live Gonzo!” also went multi-platinum.

Nugent has also authored four books, including “Kill It and Grill It” and the New York Times bestsellers “God, Guns, & Rock ‘N’ Roll” and “Ted, White, And Blue: The Nugent Manifesto.”

Source: http://www.vcstar.com/