Maryland Natural Resources Police Blotter

The Maryland Natural Resources Police charged hunters in Frederick and Allegany counties last weekend with wildlife violations.

On Saturday, two Cumberland residents received citations for poaching deer by an officer responding to a complaint of shots fired near the intersection of West Flintstone Creek Road and Benson Farm Lane.

The officer approached the driver of a car parked along a field who told him that she was lost and trying to find her way home. When asked, Carol Hubbard Miley, 58, told the officer that the unopened beer in the center console belonged to her husband, who was at home. Then she told the officer that her husband had walked into the field to recover the deer he had just shot.

A voluntary search of the vehicle found a .50-caliber muzzleloader in the trunk. Miley provided a written statement to the officer.

The next day, Nov. 7, the officer met with both suspects. Rodney Wayne Bible, 58, admitted shooting  at the buck that crossed the road in front of their vehicle and that he used the vehicle’s high beams to pick the deer our in the darkened field. After firing, he was unable to locate the deer.

Bible and Miley each were charged with hunting at night and casting rays with an implement (jacklighting). Bible also was charged with hunting during a closed season, having a loaded firearm in a vehicle and shooting from a roadway.

The two are scheduled to appear in Allegany District Court on Jan. 28. Bible faces fines in excess of $6,000. Miley could be assessed fines of more than $1,500.

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In Frederick County, two hunters were charged last Friday with turkey hunting out of season.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 47, and Mark Joshua Wright, 30, both of Hagerstown, were questioned by officers after Myersville residents reported hearing gunfire. The men admitted shooting a female turkey, which the officer found in a field.

Frederick County turkey season does not reopen until Jan. 21.

Kennedy and Wright are scheduled to appear in Frederick District Court on Dec. 23. If found guilty, each man could be fined as much as $1,500.