A St. Mary’s County man has been charged with multiple counts of illegal hunting after police investigated an incident in Charles County.
Russell Wayne Weekley, 56, of Mechanicsville, received citations Nov. 20 for hunting on private land without written permission, failing to produce a hunting license, failing to tag a deer, and removing the head, hide or body parts before check in.
An officer was alerted by an off-duty Charles County deputy sheriff of a trespassing and illegal hunting complaint on Piney Church Road. The officer approached Weekley, riding a bicycle, as he returned to his truck with hunting gear. Weekly acknowledged trespassing, but said he was scouting for deer, not hunting.
After Weekley left, the officer walked a mile-and-a-quarter stretch of the wood line and found four legs and two back straps freshly removed from a deer. A few hundred yards away, the officer found a bow and arrows, a backpack, a collapsible tree stand and a duffel bag stuffed with hunting clothes.
The officer contacted Weekley, who acknowledged the gear was his and that he intended to return for it and the deer meat.
Weekley is scheduled to appear in Charles County District Court Feb. 21. The maximum fine for each charge is $1,500.
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Information provided by the Maryland Department of Natural Resource’s Police daily briefings