Four Plead Guilty To Transporting Bear Across State Line

Wednesday, May 23rd 2007, 6:30 am

By: News On 6

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) -- Four men have pleaded guilty in federal court to a misdemeanor charge of interstate transportation of a bear. U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling says the pleas were entered Thursday by 38-year-old Shannon Ward Brown of Poteau; 72-year-old John R. Dennington of Hodgen; and 44-year-old Arthur Eudell Brown and 34-year-old James Russell Lockhart, both of Mena, Arkansas.

Sperling says that in September 2005, Lockhart and Arthur Brown had a baiting site in the Upper Kiamichi Wilderness Area in the Ouachita National Forest in Oklahoma.

Sperling says that on October 1st, 2005, Shannon Brown killed a bear at that baiting site and, along with Arthur Brown and Dennington, located the bear carcass, removed it from the wilderness area and transported it to Arkansas.

There is no hunting season for bear in Oklahoma.

Sperling says that U.S. Magistrate Judge Kimberly West assessed each of the four men a $500 fine and a $25 special monetary assessment.