Staff Report
The Associated Press
HOBBS, N.M. (AP) - A Hobbs man convicted of poaching a mule deer has been ordered to pay the state $10,000 in civil damages.
Magistrate Jack Bailey handed down the punishment to Bradley Smith on Tuesday. It's the maximum penalty under a 3-year-old law that allows the state to seek reimbursement for the loss of a trophy game animal.
The 26-year-old Smith plans on appealing the ruling.
Smith pleaded no contest in March 2007 to a charge of illegal possession of a deer with 28-inch-wide antlers. The antlers were later scored at over 202 inches, qualifying the deer as a trophy animal.
