Moose poacher receives sentence

A Coeur d’Alene millionaire affiliated with the University of Washington School of Medicine who was convicted of poaching a moose near Mica Bay was sentenced to no more than two years in prison and ordered to pay more than $26,000 in fines and penalties.

John A. Huckabay, 66, was sentenced to a fixed term of one year in prison followed by an indeterminate term of a year in prison, but First District Judge Benjamin R. Simpson suspended the sentence and ordered Huckabay to serve 30 days in jail without a chance for work release or public service.

“You do community service already,” Simpson said. “So that would be a reward for you.”

Huckabay serves as the managing director at ChemAlum, a chemical plant, in Richards Bay, South Africa, and runs his family’s foundation, called Huckabay Family Challenge, which has committed more than $8 million toward scholarships for students who want to practice rural medicine in the Northwest, according to the University of Washington’s website.

Huckabay was convicted by a jury earlier this year of not having a tag to kill a cow moose he shot in October 2014 near Red Hog Road at Mica Bay, on the northwest side of Lake Coeur d’Alene. He reportedly hired a boom truck to hoist the dead animal into a pickup as it lay in a neighbor’s yard. The moose was hauled to a friend’s house in Coeur d’Alene to be butchered.

Prosecutors said Huckabay lied about the incident to Idaho Fish and Game investigators. He pleaded not guilty and asked for a jury trial.

“He’s worth millions,” deputy prosecutor Art Verharen told the court. “A $50,000 fine is a drop in the bucket. Anything less than that won’t mean anything to the defendant.”

Verharen asked for a lifetime hunting license suspension.

Huckabay’s attorney, Erik P. Smith, said his client had no previous offenses.

“Not even a traffic ticket,” Smith told the court. “He is low risk, if not zero risk,” of reoffending.

Smith said the object of sentencing isn’t to stick it to the rich guy.

“The goals of sentencing are not to fine him the maximum because of his wealth,” he said.

Over the past decade, Huckabay has purchased a slew of hunting and fishing licenses, tags and permits. In 2014, the year he illegally killed the cow moose, he had a tag for moose in Unit 2 along the Spokane River, but not for Unit 5 near Mica Bay where the cow moose was killed and neighbors saw Huckabay hoisting the cow into the bed of a teal-colored pickup truck.

Simpson commended Huckabay for his role as a benefactor and community volunteer, but said killing an animal valued by others and the state couldn’t go unpunished. He ordered Huckabay to serve two years probation and ordered his hunting license revoked for three years.

“You won’t like probation,” Simpson said. “But I have to impose a sentence that fits the crime.”

Huckabay has appealed the sentence.

Huckabay’s family in 2016 donated $1 million for scholarships to students attending the University of Washington School of Medicine in Spokane and other programs. The family has contributed more than $7 million to the scholarship fund over the past decade, according to newspaper reports.