Payments resolveillegal guide cases

SANDPOINT - Two men accused of guiding without a license on Priest Lake are paying their way out of trouble, according to court documents.

Delbert Wayne Jepson was charged with guiding without a license and Steven Wesley Laut was charged with employing the unlicensed guide. The misdemeanor charges were filed after an undercover investigation conducted by the Idaho Outfitters & Guides Licensing Board and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game last summer.

The agents posed as anglers on a June 4 fishing trip on the lake.

The cases against Jepson, a 54-year-old Priest River resident, and Laut, 59, of Spokane Valley, Wash., were tracking toward trial in Bonner County Magistrate Court. However, both men entered into agreements with the state, court records show.

Laut agreed to pay the licensing board $1,000, while Jepson agreed to pay the board $500. In exchange for the payments, the cases were dismissed.