Immigrant Guilty In Bear Parts Case Wildlife Agents Found Skulls, Gall Bladders Of Bears In Home

A federal jury deliberated three days before finding a Russian immigrant guilty Friday of trying to transport gall bladders from poached bears.

Nikolay Senchenko, an American citizen naturalized last year, will be sentenced later. The standard range for his crime is zero to six months in prison and/or a huge fine.

He also faces poaching-related charges in Pend Oreille County.

“There was no proof of this allegation,” the 46-year-old Russian said after nine men and three women pronounced the verdict.

Through Spokane interpreter Sergei Cemenenkoff, Senchenko told a reporter: “No one ever hunted unlawfully. I always had a license, and I never, ever tried to sell parts of wildlife to anyone.

“I feel this is discrimination against me as Russian. I saw America, how they try people. There is no money, there is no fairness. There is money, there is fairness.”

The trial for Senchenko, a Spokane Valley father of nine, was postponed a week after opening statements when the defendant finally agreed to a court-appointed lawyer. He had tried to defend himself through an interpreter until then.

Defense attorney Leslie Weatherhead was given a week to prepare.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Ohms credited Weatherhead’s “remarkable” defense for keeping the jury in the deliberating room nearly three full days.

Juries out that long customarily return innocent verdicts.

“This business is full of surprises,” Weatherhead said as he left the courtroom. He agreed that the short notice put him at a stark disadvantage, but returned Ohms’ compliment, calling him a “good lawyer.”

Senchenko speaks little English but balked at being represented by an attorney. He couldn’t afford one and wouldn’t trust one appointed by the same government that accused him of snaring black bears in northeast Washington, he said.

State and federal wildlife agents found three dried gall bladders in Senchenko’s home and bear skulls and claws in his home and vehicle.

Bear body parts fetch astronomical prices on the black market.

Later this year, Senchenko will be tried on two counts of hunting during closed season, four counts of exceeding the bag limit, five counts of hunting with an illegal firearm and one count of failing to notch his hunting tag after killing a bear.

, DataTimes