HUNTING -- The day in court has been postponed for a wealthy hunter charged last season with shooting a virtually tame trophy bull elk in a closed area near Ellensburg.

Tod Reichert, 76, of Salkum, is charged with second-degree unlawful hunting of big game, a gross misdemeanor, for allegedly having locals lead him to the bull locals called "Bullwinkle," shooting it in an area closed to hunting branch-antlered bulls, and then driving the bull's carcass to a legal hunting area in order to tag and field dress it.

The pretrial hearing set for May 31 in Lower Kittitas District Court has been postponed until June 21.

The story on the case, including Reichert's willingness to spend a fortune on raffle and auction tags to facilitate his trophy hunting, was rounded up in a story from the Yakima Herald-Republic.

Trophy hunting has a way of stalking the ragged edge of poaching when hunters get greedy.

This is just a hunch, but it's possible that Reichert could be using his attorney to postpone the case as long as it takes for him to fill his two current trophy tags purchased in March at the state governor's tag auctions facilitated by the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.

A lot is at stake.  He bid $85,000 for the Pennsylvania tag and $75,000 for the Washington tag.

If he goes to court and is found guilty before those hunts, Reichert could lose his hunting privileges before those seasons start even though he's paid for the tags.

It's not clear whether a conviction in the Ellensburg case could result in confiscation of his "Bullwinkle" trophy.