Hunter accused of bringing diseased deer to SC admits wrongdoing, faces lengthy probation
A hunter accused of bringing a deer carcass infected with a deadly disease to South Carolina pled guilty Wednesday in federal court to wildlife charges that resulted from trips he and two friends took to Kansas.
Chad Caldwell Seymore, 48, didn’t make a statement in federal court, but he and his attorney said after the hearing he was unaware of rules that led to his indictment last month.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office recommended a sentence of 36 months probation for the Upstate resident, a worker at the V.C. Summer nuclear plant in Fairfield County. The misdemeanor charges carry a maximum prison sentence of one year. A judge must sign off on the U.S. Attorney’s Office sentencing recommendation of 36 months.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elle Klein, who prosecuted the case, was not immediately available after court for comment.
Seymore is among three men charged in the case involving chronic wasting disease, an ailment lethal to deer that has sparked substantial concerns at the S.C. Department of Natural Resources.
Chronic wasting disease is not known to sicken humans, but it can devastate deer populations over time, which would hurt the state’s multi-million dollar deer hunting industry, DNR officials say.
The disease that state and federal officials found in the deer part has never been documented in wild deer in South Carolina, but officials worry that importing deer from other states where it has been found — in this case Kansas — could spread it to native white-tailed deer in the Palmetto State.
South Carolina regulations prohibit bringing in deer parts, such as heads, from states where the disease has been documented. About 30 states, including Kansas, have had outbreaks in deer. Some southeastern states have recently documented the disease.
In this case, the federal charges of illegally transporting wildlife resulted because it is unlawful to break wildlife laws in one state and then move animal parts to another state.
The case involving Seymore and two fellow hunters centered on trips they made to Kansas more than four years ago. Lured by the big deer that roam across the Kansas landscape, the men hunted the animals and brought back a deer head to possibly mount on a wall as a trophy, Seymour’s attorney said last week.
Other defendants, whose cases have not been resolved, are Sean Robert Pascall and Justin Grady Lemaster. The U.S. Attorney’s office has not said where the men are from. Seymore was originally identified last week as being from Greenville County, but his lawyer said Wednesday he is from Spartanburg County.
Terms of the plea agreement between Seymore and the U.S. Attorney’s Office say that he must cooperate with government prosecutors and pay a $10,000 fine. During the 36-month probation, he must not do any hunting.
In the plea agreement, Seymore admitted to the illegal wildlife transportation charges. The agreement says he should have known that it was unlawful to transport the wildlife to South Carolina. Seymore answered a series of questions from a federal judge saying he understood what he was pleading to.
After his hearing in U.S. District Court in Columbia, Seymore and attorney James Brehm said he ran into trouble because they believe there is a lack of hunter education in South Carolina. Despite assertions by the DNR that it has tried to educate hunters about the law and chronic wasting disease, Seymore and Brehm said he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong.
“They don’t post this on the news or on the front page of the paper,’’ Seymore said. Brehm blamed the problem on a lack “of hunter education.’’
