UPDATED 9-18-15 with news (at end of post) about violations in Alaska involving another TV hunting show.

HUNTING -- A Chewelah man and host of the former cable TV hunting show “Trophy State of Mind” has been convicted and fined $12,215 for trespassing and illegally hunting deer and elk in Montana.

Matthew Alwine, 28, was sentenced Wednesday for hunting violations on private property in the Crazy Mountains east of Clyde Park from 2010 to 2014, according to Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officers.

The largest portion of the fine, $8,000, was for killing a trophy white-tailed deer last year. The photo of the illegally killed buck was still the lead image on Alwine’s Facebook page Thursday.

“Some of these people are celebrities on video and social media, but here’s the reality: The animal was taken illegally,” said Chad Murphy, MFWP regional investigator.

Alwine was contacted by The Spokesman-Review but declined to comment on the case.

He pleaded guilty in Park County Justice Court to five counts of failing to obtain landowner permission while hunting game animals. He also was convicted of illegally killing elk and deer, but the restitution fees were lower because those animals weren’t considered trophy status.

“The whitetail buck had a Boone and Crockett gross score of 162, which puts it over Montana’s threshold of 140 points for trophy status,” Murphy said. Trophy animals have high value to the state and other hunters, he said.

In addition to the fines, Alwine will be banned for four years from hunting, fishing and trapping in Montana as well as in Washington, Idaho and 41 other states that have reciprocal agreements, Murphy said.

Alwine  pleaded guilty  Sept. 2 in Missoula County Justice Court and was fined $1,035 for illegally obtaining Montana resident hunting licenses in 2014.

“A Montana resident pays about $90 for those licenses while he should have paid the nonresident fees of $970,” Murphy said.

Alwine also had to forfeit the animal parts seized during the investigation, including  the antlers of five elk and three deer.

The yearlong investigation began with an anonymous tip, Murphy said. Some of the illegal hunts  on a private ranch without landowner permission were featured on “Trophy State of Mind” and in other videos Alwine produced, Murphy said. 

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife officers assisted with the investigation. Alwine was involved in a Washington investigation in 2010, said Dan Rahn, Washington Wildlife police officer.

Other suspects charged in the investigation include Dalton Harum, 18, of Wenatchee, and Zach Samek, 20, of Deer Park. Harum was fined $170 for failing to obtain landowner permission and forfeited antlers from an elk he killed in 2014. Samek was fined $185 for trespassing.

“Those two guys were following Alwine’s directions,” Murphy said.

“Greed and ego are generally the driving forces behind those that commit multiple wildlife violations,” Murphy said. “That was especially evident in this case with Alwine boasting about his kills within the same day on his social media sites.”

Meanwhile, TV hunting show hosts have gone afoul of Alaska wildlife police, too, as reported in this story this week by Sam Friedman of the Fairbanks News-Miner:

Host, eight others on TV show charged with illegal Alaska game hunts

FAIRBANKS—A cable television hunting show host and eight others were charged with federal hunting violations Monday for alleged illegal big game hunting filmed in Alaska and broadcast on the program.

The charges allege that hunts going back to 2009 on the Sportsman Channel's show "Hunting Syndicate" were conducted illegally. In addition to the nine people charged, a Reno, Nevada production company The Outdoor Syndicate, its owner and Reno editing studio Zap were cited for making a commercial film without a permit inside Noatak National Preserve, in Northwest Alaska.

"Each Alaska hunt, depicted on 'The Syndicate,' falsely portrayed, due to selective editing or other means, the apparently legal take of Alaska big game when in truth in fact all of the Alaska big game animals documented on 'The Syndicate' were illegally killed," one charging document reads.

Over the years, participants in the show killed "dozens of big game animals, including grizzly bear, moose, caribou and Dall sheep" in Alaska, a news release from the U.S. Attorney's office in Anchorage stated.

"The Hunting Syndicate" documents hunts both in Alaska and elsewhere, according to the program's website. It's now in its fourth season. Recent episodes have been filmed in Colorado and Nevada. The show airs three times a week on the Sportsman Channel.

A message left at the show's Reno office wasn't returned Monday afternoon.

"Sometimes a storm hits you outta nowhere and you have no control over what this storm brings you to and through," reads a message on the program's Facebook page on Monday afternoon. "We are weathering a storm that was put onto us by others. Please know we will be updating you very soon and we appreciate all the good thoughts and prayers we are receiving!"

Clark W. Dixon, 41, a host of the show, was charged with a felony violation of the federal Lacey Act. The charge against him alleges he "knowingly" violated the federal wildlife law, Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Skrocki said. The felony charge is punishable by a maximum of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.

The other charges allege eight people who appeared on the show committed misdemeanor Lacey Act violations. The misdemeanor charge is based on the lesser "negligence" standard that they "knew or should have known" they were breaking the law, Skrocki said.

The hunters are accused of violating a provision of the Lacey Act that makes it illegal from someone to "transport in interstate commerce, any wildlife taken in violation of any law or regulation of any state."

The hunters are accused of state of Alaska hunting violations that include hunting without permits, same-day hunting — hunting on the same day as flying into a remote area — and taking a grizzly bear without a guide.

The charge against Dixon claims that on Sept. 13, 2010, Dixon acted as a guide for a brown bear hunt in Noatak National Preserve despite being neither an Alaska resident nor a registered guide. Dixon is a Mississippi resident, according to the charging document.

A biography of Dixon on the Sportsman Channel website describes him as a seasonal Alaska resident who spends his springs and summers in the state.

Prosecutors have been investigating the show's participants for Lacey Act violations for years, Skrocki said. The investigation became overt, with the use of search warrants and interviews, last summer.

"Information was trickling in over several years," he said. "I can't go into details, but at some point in the investigative timeline we obtained a break which we then used to further our investigation and obtain search warrants and the like."

Dixon's father, Charles W. Dixon, of Brookhaven, Mississippi, was among the show participants charged with a misdemeanor. The elder Dixon is a pilot, and prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of his STOL Quest SQ-4 plane, which was allegedly used in illegal hunts. Also charged was Lance David Walker, 37, of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who's described as a show team member on the "Hunting Syndicate" website.

The other people charges are:

• Randolph Goza, 48, of Wasilla, Alaska

• Terry Goza, 71, of Hazelhurst, Mississippi

• Clarence Michael Osborne, 53, of Madison, Mississippi

• Shannon Dale Hooks, 54, of Mendenhall, Mississippi

• Fulton Josef Wold, 41, of Nashville, Tennessee

• Robert Scott Viner, 40, of Ridgeland, Mississippi.

• Syndicate owner Michael P. Dianda, was cited for making a commercial film inside Noatak National Preserve without a permit.

Their initial court date has not been set.