Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
|
|
 |
|
|
Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers provided this example of a European-style deer skull mount. (Contributed photo) |
Thursday, January 28, 2010
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers has run afoul of the law.
A Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries conservation officer on Wednesday charged Rogers with practicing taxidermy without a license. The charge is a class 4 misdemeanor, according to a city release.
Rogers said the charge was brought against him upon his own initiative, and he already has paid the $121 fine to the Henry County General District Court.
The officer, Matthew Silicki, confirmed Rogers’ statements.
Silicki said that Rogers was not arrested.
“There was not any type of (criminal) negligence” on his part, Silicki said. “It was genuinely an honest mistake.”
The charge stems from Rogers preparing a European mount of a deer head, which involves removing skin and flesh from the skull, the city release said.
Virginia Code Section 29.1-415 states that “the fee for a permit to stuff or mount birds, animals, fish or ‘part thereof,’ for compensation or for sale shall be forty dollars per year.”
Rogers said he does not consider himself to be a taxidermist but he would have paid the $40 fee if he had known it was required for someone to do a European mount.
He said he now plans to apply for the license “although I still have difficulty understanding how the definition of taxidermy can legally be applied to doing a skull mount of a deer head.”
“In nearly every dictionary I have looked at,” he said, “taxidermy is defined as the art or operation of preparing, stuffing and mounting the skins of dead birds and animals for exhibition in a lifelike state.”
A European mount looks “anything but lifelike,” he said.
According to the release, the charge resulted from a conversation Rogers had recently with Silicki, who had asked for his help in locating a person in Martinsville.
During the conversation, Rogers learned that Silicki was checking several local taxidermists to make sure they were in compliance with the law.
An investigation pertaining to one taxidermist is continuing, Silicki said.
He emphasized that Rogers “was not being investigated in any shape or form.”
Rogers said he told the officer that he had done several deer skull mounts and asked him if a taxidermy license was required for that.
“I was certain I didn’t need a license and fully expected him to say ‘no,’ but instead he said ‘yes,’” said Rogers.
After Silicki explained the code section, Rogers said, “I told him, ‘Well, the law is the law, and ignorance of it is no excuse.’ I also told him no one is above the law and that if he was going to charge anyone else with the offense, he had better charge me with it as well.”
So the officer issued Rogers a misdemeanor summons, the city release showed.
Rogers said he decided not to appeal the charge because “the game warden (Silicki) is more familiar with game laws than I am.”
Rogers indicated that he also wanted to set a good example for the officers in the Martinsville Police Department.
“He didn’t want any favoritism” shown toward him, Silicki said.
Silicki said he did not know whether he would have charged Rogers if the chief had not insisted.
When an officer decides whether to charge someone for an offense, Silicki said, “everything is on a case-by-case basis and at the officer’s discretion.”
In Martinsville, police chiefs are hired by, and answer to, the city manager.
City Manager Clarence Monday said Rogers will face no disciplinary action.
Noting that Rogers insisted that he be charged, Monday said, “I consider him to be a person of high integrity.”
“His credibility (as police chief) is not at stake here,” added Monday, so “I am treating this as a personal matter, not a personnel matter.”
Generally speaking, Monday said that for a police chief to be disciplined or terminated, it would take “something more severe,” such as driving under the influence of alcohol, assault and shoplifting.
Rogers said the taxidermy charge was not the first time he has had a charge lodged against him.
He said that in 1997, he went hunting and killed a turkey out of season. He did not realize that, he said, until he found out at a game-checking station that the state had reduced the hunting season by one week.
Rogers said he then contacted a game warden and went to court. He pled guilty and paid a $250 “replacement cost” and $40 in court costs, he said.
He did not pay a fine, he said, because the judge determined there was “no intent to break the law.” |
| |
|
|
.jpg)
.jpg)