SPRINGFIELD - Three refugees from Thailand accused of using slingshots to kill birds, frogs and turtles in Forest Park last month were fined $50 each Thursday for hunting without a license.

The defendants - Patty Poo, 54; Kehney Moo, 38; and Hsa Wah, 60; all of Springfield - admitted to hunting without a license and violating park rules during their arraignment in Springfield District Court.

In exchange, prosecutors dropped an animal cruelty charge and reduced the remaining two counts to civil offenses.

The men were arrested on May 28 for killing wildlife around the park's Lilly Pond, a popular spot for families and children.

Bags containing dead turtles, frogs and birds were confiscated from the men by police responding to 911 calls from people in the park.

The men were held in custody overnight for an arraignment the next morning. But the hearing was postponed due to a lack of an interpreter fluent in Karen, a tribal language spoken by less than 10 percent of the population of Myanmar, the men's native country.

With no court-certified interpreter available Thursday, Judge William Boyle allowed a Karen-speaking woman to assist the defendants.

Once the animal cruelty charge was dismissed and the remaining counts reduced to civil offenses, each man pleaded responsible to hunting without a license and violating park rules.

Boyle imposed $50 fines on the illegal hunting charge and no penalty for violating park rules.

"This will close the case for you," the judge told the defendants.

"If you come back (on similar charges) the penalties will go up."

By late morning, the men were sitting outside the clerk's office, waiting to pay their fines.

Speaking on their behalf, Deirdre Griffin, a program director for Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts, said they never realized that hunting in the park was illegal.

"They had no idea that what they were doing was wrong," said Griffin, whose agency relocated a handful of Karen-speaking families in Springfield in past few years.

Griffin praised the District Attorney Anthony D. Gulluni's office for understanding that the case arose from a cultural misunderstanding and treating it accordingly.

Assistant District Attorney Karen McCarthy, who handled the hearing, referred questions to Gulluni or Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Fitzgerald, his first assistant.

The defendants and their families fled a long-running civil war in Myanmar and spent nearly a decade in refugee camps in Thailand, said Jean Marvel, who teaches their children at Central High School.

Hunting was intrinsic to their culture, Marvel said.

Her Karen-speaking students are "wonderful," the teacher said, adding the younger generation has picked up the new language and culture more quickly than their parents.

"They come to school and work hard every day," she added. "They are model students."