MOUNT VERNON — The biggest poaching case to ever hit Knox County is coming to a close. Operation Overkill is wrapping up and resulted in the conviction of eight Lorain County residents on several charges.
David Saltis, George Saltis Jr., George Saltis Sr., Jeffrey Saltis, Thomas Saltis, Johnny Saltis, James Strehle and Joaquin Segarra were each found guilty of charges totaling over four years in prison as well as fines totaling $2,425, several hunting privilege revocations and forfeited motor vehicles and equipment.
“This originally started from a tip complaint called into 1-800-POACHER,” said Wildlife Officer Mike Miller. “Myself and another officer started investigating. We discovered they were operating in a couple of different counties, which wound up involving the other districts. It took some time to work through that, and we received additional complaints. That investigation eventually led to a covert operation. We actually lined up with them and worked with them and that led to getting search warrants, which led to the rest of the information we needed to prosecute. It took some time to get it all through court — it has been almost a year — because we were dealing with Lorain, Coshocton and Knox County municipal courts and common pleas courts. It actually turned out to some pretty substantial penalties. It was the biggest case we’ve ever had here in Knox County.”
Wildlife officials charged the group of suspects for driving to Coshocton and Knox counties on several occasions and shooting deer from their vehicles or along the roadway in violation of state laws. Suspects were arrested on February 7, when wildlife officers executed four search warrants and seven felony warrants.
The group was found guilty of eight felony charges for the illegal handling of firearms, as well as 29 misdemeanor wildlife violations. The violations included hunting with the aid of a motor vehicle, taking more than the bag limit of deer, hunting on private property without permission, failing to tag deer, hunting outside of legal hours, using a radio for hunting purposes, deer-gun hunting without blaze orange, improper record keeping and aiding an offender.
“Some of the violations were severe because they were repeat offenders,” Miller said. “They had felonies on their records. Generally, the first timers don’t receive that harsh of penalties. Of course, the type of crimes they were committing and how they went about doing it led to the judges’ decisions on the forfeiture of vehicles and all of the guns involved. All of the cases were actually pled out. None of the cases actually went to trial.”
Based upon the investigation and evidence recovered, Miller is sure the Division of Wildlife got the right people. The lack of reports from the eastern part of the county this fall also confirms it.
“In the area where those guys were hunting, I actually have not had one spotlight complaint or one road shooting this year,” said Miller. “That tells me the last couple of years, this group were the main people in that part of the county doing these types of things. Because of people calling in with vehicle descriptions, we were able to develop a pattern. It just takes time. It is like little pieces of a puzzle that have to be put together. All of those calls, no matter how much they seemed insignificant, they added up to a pretty big case.”
With such stiff penalties, Miller is hoping this will deter anyone who may be considering taking a deer illegally.
“I think when people read about the punishments these guys got, it will act as a deterrent,” said Miller. “People can see the potential penalties for their actions. The division is very happy with the penalties handed out.”
Miller is also happy to get this case on the books. Several defendants still face charges in Mount Vernon Municipal Court, but the bulk of the case has come to a close.
Now, he’s hoping that hunters can earn the trust of the farmers and residents affected.
“These guys give sportsmen and women a bad name,” Miller said. “Without them around, the average sportsman doesn’t get the bad rap. Most hunters don’t do anything wrong. They are ethical, but when you get a few bad apples that go around and do these things, it causes problems for everybody. It makes landowners upset and hunters upset. Then, you’ve got this issue of safety because they are shooting from their vehicle.
“Sportsman will see a lot out of this. In some parts of the county, there are more deer. I’ve had some farmers ask me about that. They’ve said, jokingly, that they thought the deer herd was getting under control as far as the number of deer they are seeing, and this year, there seems to be more deer in some of those areas. My response was, ‘Well, when you have somebody out on your farm killing 30 deer you don’t know about, and then the next year they are not doing that, the population is going to increase.’”
DEER-GUN SEASON GOING WELL: With the deer-gun season half over, the deer kill total for Knox County has rebounded well. The county had 954 deer taken on opening day, and that number has continued to grow every day since.
“Last year, we have five inches of rain on the opening day, and the opening day total was down greater than 50 percent,” said Miller. “This year, even though it was cold, it was back to where it normally is. Last year was an anomaly. This year, we are right on target.
“There are a lot of nice deer being taken. I’ve been seeing some decent deer, but no great big deer like I saw during archery season. I swung by Oiler’s Meat Processing (Wednesday) and they had several big bucks that were there to be processed. I would say we are about average to what we have been.”
Miller expects the season to end with a bang this weekend. Hunters also have another opportunity to bag a deer Dec. 20 and 21.
“This Saturday and Sunday will be busy,” Miller said. “During the week, people are working. I expect Saturday and Sunday to be busy with people out. Then in two weeks, there will be another two-day gun season.”
