Developer Fined For Poaching Former Skeet Shooter Among 9 Convicted For Illegal Duck Hunting

A Spokane developer and former world-class skeet shooter is among nine Washington men convicted of illegal duck hunting after a three-year undercover investigation.

Joseph G. Ward, owner of Pinnacle Realty, 9 S. Washington, was sentenced last month to one year of probation, a year’s loss of hunting privileges and a $260 fine.

Ward was attending a Las Vegas convention Friday and could not be reached for comment, his receptionist said.

The results of the investigation were made public Friday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Starting in 1992, agents infiltrated a private hunting club called Eagles Lake Ranch, a 10,000-acre spread with 60 lakes near Othello in the Columbia Basin.

Ranch officials, guides and customers pleaded guilty April 19 before U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno in Spokane of taking waterfowl in excess of legal limits and using lead shot, an environmental hazard.

Posing as clients, a team of agents documented violations for three years while sitting in blinds next to the nine defendants, said federal wildlife spokesman Doug Zimmer.

“This was an extensive, ongoing poaching operation,” he said. “In talking with the agents, the feeling they had was it was blatant.”

In most cases, the nine men killed twice the daily limit of three ducks each, Zimmer said.

Ward, 48, was the first Eastern Washington shooter to win the state Skeet Championships, in 1990. He once was rated 55th in the world.

The Spokane developer also was a heralded super-stock race car driver in the Northwest until selling his vehicle in the 1970s to top racer Chad Little.

Others arrested include:

Michael Bernsen, age not available, president of Eagle Lakes and a Moses Lake resident.

Anthony Bernsen, 39, head guide for Eagle Lakes and a Moses Lake resident.

Steve Ward, 43, and Alex Ward, 21, a father and son from Connell, Wash., and David Klaue, 42, a client from Spokane.

Tom Hinrichs, 46, a guide from Kent.

Robert Kiblinger, a guide from Tacoma.

Daryl Markham, 39, a guide from Kennewick.

, DataTimes