Poached trophy: Hunter changes story

The suspect in the Goodhue County poaching of a world-record eight-point whitetail buck now says he found the deer dead and did not kill it with a bow, as he initially told Department of Natural Resources conservation officers.

Troy Alan Reinke, 32, of Cannon Falls, was re-interviewed by the DNR after studies of the giant deer's hide determined that the animal had been killed by a firearm, said conservation officer Tyler Quant, of Red Wing.

During the second interview, Reinke said he found the deer dead, killed by someone else. At first, he said he killed the deer with his bow while hunting on Halloween.

After making that statement, Reinke was charged with 13 misdemeanors and gross misdemeanors for poaching that buck, as well as two other deer, a doe and a smaller buck.

He was licensed to kill only one deer. Failing to tag either of the smaller animals rendered all three illegally taken, according to a complaint filed in Goodhue County.

DNR officials said they don't think the animal was killed where Reinke claimed it was. Officers have interviewed a cousin of Reinke's and the cousin's girlfriend, who say they helped lift the deer into Reinke's pickup. That location is near where a landowner reported hearing a shot and seeing a vehicle drive away, according to a source familiar with the investigation. The pair told DNR officers they weren't with Reinke when the deer was killed, but they responded to his request for help.

When the cousin and girlfriend arrived, the animal appeared to them to be legally tagged, according to the DNR, and they told officers they believed Reinke had killed it with a bow.

No charges are expected against the two, Quant said.

The Goodhue County attorney's office is considering whether to amend the 13 charges against Reinke to include two additional gross misdemeanors, based on his second statement to conservation officers.

The firearms season was closed in October, and the new charges would stem from possessing a deer during a closed season.

Without a bullet or slug and a firearm to match one or the other to, it might be difficult to prove Reinke killed the buck, according to the DNR.

The case has sparked outrage in part because the deer, if legally taken, might have been the highest-scoring eight-point whitetail ever registered by Pope and Young or Boone and Crockett, which chronicle trophy big-game animals.

Reinke is due in court Dec. 10. If convicted, he could be assessed $2,000 in restitution and fines totaling in the thousands, as well as possible jail time.

Reinke has earlier convictions for gas theft, marijuana possession and fighting. He is currently on probation for domestic assault and could face probation violations if convicted of new charges.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the DNR TIP (turn in poachers) hot line at 1-800-652-9093.

Dennis Anderson • 612-673-4424#