NJ Poacher arrested

[Emily]

from the Newark, NJ Star-Ledger
http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf ... thispage=1


Neck band helps collar alleged killer of 2 bears
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
When a mother black bear and her cub were killed in Sussex County, the culprit had one obstacle to a clean getaway -- a radio-transmitting collar state biologists had affixed to the elder bruin.

So, it was cut loose, nailed to a board and sent floating down the Paulinskill River in a ruse state Conservation Officers said was designed to lead any poaching probe down the wrong trail.

But the ploy backfired.

A month of backwoods sleuthing, said the state Department of Environmental Protection yesterday, led to civil charges against a 29-year-old Hampton man that carry more than $5,000 in fines.

Jacob W. Westbrook 5th is scheduled to appear in Stillwater Municipal Court next week on civil complaints that include illegally shooting a large female bear and year-old cub with a shotgun, hunting without a license and destroying property.

That property would be the radio collar -- which not only provided investigators the clue they needed to track down Westbrook. It alerted them to the killing.

Switches inside the collar let biologists know if a stationary bear is hibernating or dead, said Lt. Frank Panico of the state Conservation Officers.

"Members of our Bear Project knew something was wrong almost right away," he said.

The older sow had literally been on the state Bear Project's radar screen for seven years. Fewer than a dozen bears have been fitted with the devices in a bid to learn more about the habits and movement of bears in densely populated New Jersey.

A biologist was tracking the sow and the accompanying cub in a wooded area of Stillwater on Dec. 31 -- the day before they were apparently shot there. When the collar suddenly indicated the sow was dead on Jan. 1, biologists were perplexed that it also indicated the bear was still moving -- directly south.


"The collar, nailed to a board, drifted maybe one or two miles down the stream from where we believe it was dropped in," Panico said.

It took until Jan. 9 to trace the transmitter to a log-jam on the Paulinskill River, where it was found nailed to the board. The transmitter had been placed in the river some distance from the shootings, but officers went straight to Stillwater to begin the probe.

"The Bear Project knew this was a bear with a relatively small home range, and they had confirmed it was alive on Dec. 31, so we knew generally where to begin looking," Panico said.

The carcasses of both animals were found on Jan. 29 in a wooded section of the township. Panico declined to say specifically what led investigators to Westbrook, except to say that interviews conducted in the area helped develop leads.

Darlene Yuhas of the DEP said Westbrook was accompanied by two other men when he shot the bears.

"They are not charged with killing the bears," Yuhas said. "They were with him, allegedly tresspassing and hunting deer illegally when he came upon the bears."

The motive for the shootings, however, is unclear. DEP officials said neither the hides nor any other part of the bears were removed.

Westbrook also faces charges of trespassing, possessing improper hunting ammunition and illegally hunting deer when he appears in court on March 12. The other men will appear on separate summonses.

Eric C. Usinowicz, 27, of Blairstown was charged with hunting deer without a license and hunting with a muzzle-loading rifle without a permit. Thomas S. Hendershot, 37, of Frelinghuysen was charged with trespassing while hunting.

Westbrook, Usinowicz and Hendershot were not available for comment last night, according to family members contacted at their respective homes. Messages left there were not immediately returned.