A one-month internal investigation has ended with charges of poaching and witness tampering filed against a former park ranger on Antelope Island.
Richard Reed was charged Wednesday in 2nd District Court in Davis County with unlawful possession of protected wildlife, wanton destruction of protected wildlife and witness tampering. The two wildlife charges are class A misdemeanors, while the witness-tampering charge is a third-degree felony.
Reed is a former employee of the Utah Division of Parks and Recreation.
Charges allege that between August 1997 and January 1998, Reed was involved in the illegal killing of two big-game species — antelope and mule deer.
"At this point we are looking at only one deer and one antelope, but the investigation is ongoing. We do not believe, at this time, this was a widespread problem," said Marty Ott, deputy director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources.
The investigation was launched after receiving information from a concerned citizen, he added.
Reed left the DPR in December 1997 to take a wildlife conservation position with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Reed is expected to return to Utah voluntarily to answer charges.
Antelope Island has become a sanctuary for big-game animals in recent years. Along with a resident herd of more than 700 buffalo and 200 mule deer, antelope were transplanted on the island in 1993 and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep in 1997 and again this past summer.