Hearing today in poaching case

SANDPOINT - A Priest River man is facing felony charges for poaching a bull moose last year.

A preliminary hearing in Duane Allen Kennedy case is set for today in Bonner County Magistrate Court. He is alternately charged with killing the moose without a tag or unlawfully possessing its meat. Kennedy is further charged with trading some of the meat to a Washington state man.

An anonymous tip on the Citizens Against Poaching hotline initiated an Idaho Department of Fish & Game investigation, according to court documents.

Kennedy, 53, allegedly told conservation officers another hunting party shot the moose in the Priest River Experimental Forest. He said he found the wounded animal, finished it off and scavenged the meat, the officers' report said.

Investigators recovered the animal from Kennedy's property and noticed that a hind quarter was unaccounted for. Kennedy allegedly traded some of the meat to a Newport man in exchange for work, court documents indicate.

Mitchell F. Mayfield, 54, was cited for possessing the hind quarter and pleaded guilty to a reduced wildlife violation, according to the Idaho Supreme Court Data Repository.