A client of a Juneau guide is the latest to be implicated in possible poaching activities in the area.
Bradley Deffenbaugh, 51, of Honolulu, Hawaii has been charged with a single count of negligently falsifying information required on a sealing certificate or temporary sealing form. That’s a class ‘A’ misdemeanor.
A ‘not guilty’ plea was entered during an arraignment on Tuesday. A jury trial is tentatively planned for late February.
Alaska Fish and Wildlife investigators allege that Deffenbaugh killed a black bear near the end of the Juneau road system, traveling by vehicle with guide Michael Duby on June 4, 2009. According to charging documents, Deffenbaugh “signed a sealing form certifying that the bear was taken south of Lyn (sic) Canal with the use of a boat on June 3, 2009”.
When interviewed by investigators, Deffenbaugh admitted to signing the sealing certificate, but he did not know why it stated that the bear was killed on the previous day with a boat.
The charge against Deffenbaugh was filed by the Attorney General’s Office of Special Prosecutions which has also filed charges against Michael Duby’s brothers, Jason W. Duby and Joel M. Duby, both of Washington state, for alleged bear hunting and sport fishing violations. Their father, Michael W. Duby, is also being charged with providing guide services without a license.
Michael Patrick Duby is currently awaiting sentencing on a federal charge for selling migratory bird parts over the internet for use as fly-tying supplies. But no charges related to the bear hunting have been filed against him yet by the State of Alaska.
Michael Patrick Duby and Michael W. Duby were already sentenced in September for five years of poaching elk, deer, and antelope in Montana.
According to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle newspaper, Michael Patrick Duby received a 20-year suspended prison sentence and was ordered to pay $15,500 in restitution. Michael W. Duby was sentenced to two six-month suspended jail sentences and three years probation for unlawful possession of game animals.
