# SD ADVENTURES



## rowdie (Jan 19, 2005)

Local News MOBRIDGE TRIBUNE

Local business owners face charges

By Katie Zerr
Wednesday, June 4, 2008 4:38 PM CDT

The owner/operator of a local business and a licensing agent from Mobridge are among six South Dakotans who have been indicted in U.S. District Court for conspiring to skirt federal, state and tribal wildlife laws.

The allegations surround Brent and Dawn Barton, who own South Dakota Adventures, a hunting outfitter in Mobridge and the Mina area and Connie Frailing of Bridge City Bait as a licensing agent of the state and for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

The indictment is the result of an investigation into one of the largest game violations cases in recent state history. Frailing and Dan Haakenson, a computer license administrator for the tribe, are accused in the indictment of changing hunting license information in order to conceal the illegal hunts. Frailing allegedly contacted Haakenson, who reissued the licenses in the names of South

Dakota Adventures employees.

According to the indictment, the Bartons allegedly arranged illegal deer, turkey and pheasant hunts for at least 36 customers from 12 states between 2003 and 2006, transported wildlife trophies to other states and persuaded state and tribal employees to falsify hunting license records. The charges are violations of the lacey Act and are felonies..

The indictment also names Kirk and Frankie Johnson are accused of leasing land to the Bartons and guiding some of the illegal hunts.

According to the indictment, the Bartons and their employees would either hunt without licenses or hunt on Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal land with Standing Rock licenses. Hunters were allowed to take more animals than legally permitted and

Brett Barton arranged to illegally ship animal trophies off reservation land or across state lines.__ Included in the indictment are charges that Barton would lease land on Cheyenne River Reservation for guided hunts, and when he could not get Cheyenne licenses he would buy Standing Rock licenses for those hunts.

The illegal hunts involved hunters from Aberdeen, and out-of-staters from Kentucky, Michigan, Florida, Kansas, North Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas, Maryland and Alaska.

--Katie Zerr

THAND YOU SDGFP!


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