Indiana man served first-of-its-kind lifetime hunting ban after multiple violations

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WAVE) - An Indiana man has received multiple charges in addition to a lifetime hunting ban following an Indiana Department of Natural Resources investigation.

Hanson Pusey, 25, from West Lafayette was sentenced to a lifetime hunting suspension in Warren County Court, in addition to home detention, probation and repayment of replacement fees.

According to a release from the Indiana DNR, the charges stem from an investigation involving the illegal hunting of wild turkeys in Indiana and multiple other states.

Officials received information in spring 2020 that Pusey had been hunting and taking multiple turkeys illegally while he was still serving a suspension given in March 2019.

Pusey was monitored using advanced surveillance techniques, and evidence was gathered of poaching in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Indiana.

He was documented as taking four spring turkeys in 2020, with two of those turkeys taken after hunting season had closed.

The release states Pusey also helped family and friends poach turkeys.

Officials obtained a search warrant for Pusey’s home and found he had kept the spent shotgun hulls from turkeys he had hunted. Pusey also listed the states and dates where the hulls were taken.

A total of 83 casings were found in the collection which dated all the way back to 2012, including 14 taken during Pusey’s suspension.

Pusey had four casings in his collection which were taken in Indiana.

Charges in other states include $4,125 in fines and an eight-year hunting suspension in Pennsylvania, $324 in fines and an indefinite hunting suspension in Connecticut, $700 in fines and license suspension during probation in Massachusetts, $2,335 in fines in Georgia, $278 in fines in North Carolina and $525 in fines in Tennessee.

Indiana DNR said Pusey was also charged in February for hunting without permission and theft of a trail camera in Warren County.

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