Chris Brackett Sentenced Yesterday

Chris Brackett admitted poaching and smuggling deer. US Federal prosecutors said forty-one-year-old Christopher Brackett used to host "Fear No Evil". Brackett admitted killing two bucks in Indiana in 2013 within minutes of each other when state rules said he could only take one in a season.
Brackett also admitted taking the second buck to East Peoria, Illinois and the next year featuring it as "the Unicorn Buck" on his show because of its antler formation. Brackett will pay fines and restitution totaling $30,000 dollars to Indiana. He'll be sentenced in November to two and a half years of probation and a worldwide ban on hunting during that period.
Brackett also confessed in court to ordering his cameraman to destroy footage of the first buck shooting. The first buck was an eight-point buck. The Unicorn Buck was an eleven-pointer.

Probation for that crime is an insult to the hunting community. He should be sentenced to prison for at least a decade and forbidden to have any contact with firearms and hunting for the rest of his life.

Newboomer said:

Probation for that crime is an insult to the hunting community. He should be sentenced to prison for at least a decade and forbidden to have any contact with firearms and hunting for the rest of his life.

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+1

Newbmr is right.............this clown needs to be making license plates..............at least 90 days.....................FWB

I was kind of wondering what happened to his TV Show?

Laws are laws but here in SC farmers can kill with deprivation permits and leave the deer. They can kill hundreds. I view that worse then what bracket did even though it is legal. 2 white tails ain’t worth that fine or days in jail. In fact in my opinion you shouldn’t have to serve time for something like this when druggies and the like get nothing at times for what they do. Prison for a deer is ludacris. An animal that you shoot can die by car and will never be missed. That ain’t nowhere near the same as druggies killing themselves and others or people driving intoxicated. In opinion if you fine a guy that much for two deer then a DUI conviction should cost you $50 k.

justin wiles said:

Laws are laws but here in SC farmers can kill with deprivation permits and leave the deer. They can kill hundreds. I view that worse then what bracket did even though it is legal. 2 white tails ain’t worth that fine or days in jail. In fact in my opinion you shouldn’t have to serve time for something like this when druggies and the like get nothing at times for what they do. Prison for a deer is ludacris. An animal that you shoot can die by car and will never be missed. That ain’t nowhere near the same as druggies killing themselves and others or people driving intoxicated. In opinion if you fine a guy that much for two deer then a DUI conviction should cost you $50 k.

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I bet if a DUI cost $50k it would save countless lives each year.

You cant compare crimes, if substance abuse needs harsher penalties, then that's what it needs. If depredation permits need reevaluated, get a biologist to produce the evidence, and make it happen. But two broken things cant be compared to justify a position.

Prison for deer is ludicrous?! Do you also think that prison for rhino poaching is the same? Conservation is a long term, delicate thing. You cant pick and choose, laws need to be followed and consequences if they're not otherwise it's a slippery slope. If you disagree with the laws, get evidence and get them changed dont break them.

Unfortunately, IMO, no matter how high his fine was, probation for this offense (especially by a public figure) will only be an example of how small the consequences are for this type of thing and provide motivation for people to break game laws instead of deter them.

He had to pay $30 k. I think that qualifies as enough consequences. I was driving on the interstate yesterday and seen about 5-6 deer dead on the side of the road. With that being said you can’t view a deer like a rhino.

to me I don’t care if he shot it at night with a q beam and a bazooka. $30 k for two whitetail is bogus. Morally as long as he ate them he is better then the farmers that leave em.

I’ll never understand the appeal of people like Brackett when it comes to hunting shows. I could only stomach about two minutes of his show. He knew the rules he broke rules all driven by his ego and desire to make a show. I don’t think he needs to be in the clink , I think hitting his wallet will work .

$30,000 is a significant penalty. I haven't read any of the charging documents, but it looks like two counts based off the Lacey act and with that fine, I am sure he had to plead to at least one felony. I would guess the number of people who get caught poaching a deer and end up with a federal felony, is somewhere slightly north of zero.

MikeNC said:

I’ll never understand the appeal of people like Brackett when it comes to hunting shows. I could only stomach about two minutes of his show. He knew the rules he broke rules all driven by his ego and desire to make a show. I don’t think he needs to be in the clink , I think hitting his wallet will work .

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I can't understand the appeal of ANY hunting show. From my perspective, they're either staged or totally fake and nothing more than infomercials. As far as the punishment, he'll be out the 30k and hunting somewhere else in the world and no one will know about it. The worldwide hunting ban is a joke. Who's going to enforce it? You got enough money? Someone will take it for a hunt.

Hogpatrol said:

I can't understand the appeal of ANY hunting show. From my perspective, they're either staged or totally fake and nothing more than an infomercials.

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I have been at the filming of a couple shows, the presence of a film crew and the demands of getting everything right for the camera, made the hunting way harder than it would have been otherwise. That is just my very limited experience with the process.

justin wiles said:

Morally as long as he ate them he is better then the farmers that leave em.

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I think this was part of the issue. He shot the first buck, and pretended "he couldn't recover it" after seeing and shooting the second bigger buck.

I also think the 30k fine was probably related to the fact he committed the act, then tried to conceal it, lied about it, blah blah blah then it all came out.