“Rocker Ted Nugent is scheduled for a court hearing in Alaska on Tuesday, when he is expected to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed,” the AP reports. “The conservative activist and gun rights advocate signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed Friday in U.S. District Court. Nugent was set to participate by telephone in Tuesday’s U.S. District Court proceeding in the southeast Alaska town of Ketchikan, his attorney said.” Wait. Ted gets to phone it in? As this is the second time the Motor City Madman has plead-out to charges of illegal hunting I guess it’s become pretty mundane. Both cases involved stunts—I mean hunts videotaped for his Spirit of the Wild TV show on the Outdoor Channel. This time . . .
Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Sukkwan Island in southeast Alaska days after he wounded a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear for that location. The agreement says Nugent knowingly possessed and transported the bear in misdemeanor violation of the Lacey Act.
The Nuge’s lawyer says his client didn’t know the law, but that’s no excuse, but that’s his excuse, so whaddayagonnado? “It’s kind of embarrassing for him because he practices ethical hunting and advocated ethical hunting and gets caught up in a crazy law that none of us have heard about,” Ross said, sounding about as conciliatory as Hamas.
To atone for his is-this-really-a-crime-who-knew-not-me, Nugent will pay a $10,000 fine and “serve” a two-year probation, “including a special condition that he not hunt or fish in Alaska or Forest Service properties for one year.”
Ted also agreed to air a public service announcement on how not to kill a bear in Alaska on his show “every second week for one year.” Why every second week? Because the authorities couldn’t get Nugent’s lawyers to agree to ban green M&Ms from his backstage dressing room. Or something like that.