Contributed Story
SULLIVAN COUNTY — November 19, 2010 — Robert Johnson, a Wildlife Conservation Officer from Pennsylvania, recently got a call from an informant telling him of an exceptionally large 10-point buck that was taken by a resident of Matamoras, Pa.
The deer was supposed to have been shot in a rural area outside Matamoras and was hanging at a deer processor in nearby Sussex N.J.
Johnson contacted New Jersey Conservation Officer Roger Nestle and the two officers visited and the butcher and discovered the 10-pointer was indeed tagged by the Matamoras resident, but it was a resident New York State deer tag. The tag indicated that a Casey Prisco of Matamoras had taken the deer in Glen Spey, a small hamlet in Sullivan County near the Pennsylvania border.
Johnson then contacted the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) office in New Paltz and Environmental Conservation Officer (ECO) Tim Canfield from Sullivan County was assigned the investigation. Officer Canfield contacted the officers from the other two states and met them the following day in Matamoras to continue the investigation.
Officers Canfield (N.Y.), Johnson (Pa.) and Nestle (N.J.) revisited the butcher and seized the deer after ECO Canfield researched and computer- checked the resident and license status of Prisco. The officers then proceeded to a car dealership in nearby Milford, Pa. to interview Prisco.
The interview was conducted and Prisco admitted to taking the deer the previous Sunday with a bow on family property near Glen Spey. Unfortunately for Prisco, the resident New York State hunting license he had obtained wasn’t valid because he obtained it fraudulently – he was not a New York State resident.
ECO Canfield charged Prisco with taking an illegal deer, making a false statement to obtain a resident New York State hunting license and hunting without a valid license.
N.J. Conservation Officer Nestle charged Prisco with the violation of possessing an improperly tagged deer in the state of New Jersey.
WCO Johnson advised that charges against Prisco may be filed in Pennsylvania pending the outcome of his investigation.