Boise man loses hunting license for life ... 3 times

John Hoffman, 58, of Boise, was one of the first poaching offenders in Idaho whose hunting privileges were revoked for life for his involvement in the infamous 1997 Cascade area railroad case.

The case involved several railroad employees who were investigated and cited for poaching multiple big game animals while doing railway maintenance between Cascade and Horseshoe Bend. Not deterred, Hoffman followed up that conviction and revocation with a second lifetime revocation, in part for poaching a deer and placing his wife's deer tag on the animal.

In September 2010, I was alerted that Hoffman recently had purchased a hunting license and a deer tag. When I interviewed him later, Hoffman justified the purchase by recalling a statement made by the judge in his first revocation conviction in 1997. In that case, the judge agreed to "revisit [Hoffman's] lifetime revocation in 10 years, pending good behavior."

When Hoffman's name came across my desk, I was astounded that someone with two lifetime hunting privilege revocations would be so bold as to buy a hunting license and a deer tag, especially knowing that a computer database tracks all license sales.

Launching my investigation, I quickly learned that this was not Hoffman's first purchase since the conviction. He purchased a hunting license in 2002, less than five years after being "revoked" for life. Beginning in 2006 through last year, Hoffman made purchasing a hunting license and deer tag an annual routine. During this time frame, he moved to Kansas for a year, still claimed Idaho residency, and also purchased a Kansas resident hunting license.

After gathering my facts, I interviewed Hoffman by phone in October 2010. To his credit, he was largely truthful, admitting to having killed two deer in Idaho while his privileges were revoked. He justified his license purchases by stating that since the license machine sold him a hunting license, it must be legal for him to hunt. As for revisiting the revocation promise made by the judge in 1997, Hoffman never followed through with it.

In early 2011, nine formal charges were filed against Hoffman for his new illegal hunting activity. These included several flagrant charges for purchasing a hunting license and tag while privileges were revoked, several counts of purchasing a wrong class license by claiming resident privileges in Kansas and Idaho at the same time and several charges of making a false statement regarding his residency on several license purchases. As the legal process began to unfold, negotiations began.

In August, Hoffman agreed to a plea bargain with the Ada County Prosecutor's office, pleading guilty to four charges. Fourth District Magistrate Kevin Swain presided over the sentencing, where Hoffman was fined $580 per charge for a total of $2,320. In addition, Hoffman was placed on two years of unsupervised misdemeanor probation for each count, for a total of eight years of probation. Three of the counts involved 180 days of suspended jail time; Swain ordered Hoffman to serve 90 days in the Ada County jail on the fourth charge. Following sentencing, Hoffman was handcuffed and taken from the courtroom to begin serving his sentence. In addition to all this, Hoffman's hunting privileges were revoked for life for the third time.

In the midst of a mound of negatives, the Hoffman case resulted in one positive change to the Idaho Fish and Game license system. A program change prevents persons serving one (or more) lifetime license suspensions from purchasing a license.

Matt O'Connell is a conservation officer in the Southwest Region with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.