On Feb. 4, two men entered guilty pleas in connection with the illegal taking of deer. On Nov. 4, 2018, ECO Michael Hameline received an anonymous complaint of an illegally taken deer in the town of Mamakating, Sullivan County. It was reported that a deer was taken with a rifle during bow-crossbow season with the aid of bait. The complaint included a trail camera picture showing an ATV with a deer on the rear rack and the operator carrying a rifle. Upon arrival to the area, ECO Hameline located an ATV matching the trail camera photo that was still warm with fresh blood on it. ECO Hameline attempted to canvass the area for witnesses without success. ECO Ricky Wood and K9 Deming were called in to assist with evidence collection. The Officers followed a blood trail along an ATV trail to a baited tree stand. Blood samples were taken from the baited stand and the back of the ATV for future analysis. K9 Deming, trained in shell case detection, was also able to locate a recently fired shell casing at the base of the tree stand. In addition, a trail camera facing the stand was seized as evidence. Over the next year, investigators conducted multiple interviews identifying two suspects. A search warrant was obtained, and with the help of the New York State Police Forensic ID Unit, hundreds of deleted images were recovered from the seized trail camera. The collected blood samples were sent to DEC's Wildlife Health Unit (WHU) for forensic comparison, which confirmed that the blood recovered from the baited stand and the ATV were from the same deer. With the help of ECO Wood, K9 Deming, NYSP, DEC WHU, and the overwhelming evidence, Joseph Sabatello of Wurstboro and Michael Zielinski of Hopewell Junction pled guilty to charges. Sabatello, identified as the primary offender, was fined $2,517.50; Zielinski, his accomplice, was fined $1,910. With a DNA restitution fee of $450, the men were fined a total of $4,877.50.
