Warden believes Vernon County poachers killed as many as 40 deer before wardens, acting on many tips, tracked them down

Joe Taschler | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

When dead deer started showing up in curious circumstances across Vernon County in early fall 2018, a whole bunch of folks — hunters, non-hunters, farmers, landowners — started calling Shawna Stringham.

A Department of Natural Resources warden for just shy of 19 years, Stringham and her fellow wardens quickly found themselves building one of the biggest poaching cases she had ever handled.

"A non-hunter called me. He said, ‘I think this deer got poached,’ ” Stringham said. The deer was in an alfalfa field and the caller was a passerby. Stringham figured the animal had been hit by a car and responded to the call to check it out.

"So, I go there and, holy smokes, it was shot," she said. "That’s what started this — a little doe."

The animal appeared to have been killed with an arrow.

What followed was a monthslong investigation involving a team of wardens chasing tips from residents throughout Vernon County that resulted in five men being convicted for illegally killing deer.

Vernon County is in southwestern Wisconsin south of La Crosse along the Mississippi River.

As part of the investigation, nine illegally killed bucks and a crossbow were seized.

Jacob Menne, 29, of Readstown was convicted Nov. 6 of five counts of illegally shining deer. He was originally charged with 17 counts in connection with the illegally killed deer. He was fined $12,250 and had his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges revoked for 15 years.

Monte Mabb, 57, of Ferryville was convicted of four counts of illegally shining deer. He was fined $9,872 and had his hunting, fishing and trapping privileges revoked for 12 years.

According to a criminal complaint filed in Vernon County Circuit Court, Mabb is Menne's uncle.

The convictions represent what wardens could prove in court, Stringham said.

The actual number of deer killed is likely much higher, she said.

"My guess is over 40 that we know about," she said. "I can’t prove that."

"They killed more deer than what they were charged for," she added. "I know there were two big bucks that they shot that were never recovered."

Three other people were also convicted in the case.

Jacob Yearous, 18, of Viola, DJ Bannister, 21, of Viola and Damon Peterson, 21, of La Farge each was convicted of a single count of illegally shining deer. They were fined and had hunting and fishing privileges suspended for a year.

Stringham said this was not a case of people shooting deer to feed themselves or their families.

"This was not for the meat. This was to kill, no doubt," Stringham said. "They were out to just kill something."

In one instance in October 2018, according to the criminal complaint, Menne and Mabb were in Menne’s vehicle driving along County Highway SS in Vernon County when Menne shot an eight-point buck. "Menne shot the deer using his spotlight and crossbow out of the passenger window while Mabb was driving," according to the complaint. "Menne ran out in the field to retrieve the deer and Menne threw the deer in his vehicle."

'You need to come out here'

As the investigation continued, all sorts of tips were coming in.

"Farmers were calling me left and right and saying, ‘You need to come out here,’ and we’d go out in their picked corn and there was a dead buck with the same colored bolt that these guys used," she said.

A bolt is a term used for the type of arrow shot by a crossbow.

"I had farmers — these deer eat their livelihood — and they came out of the woodwork to help us," Stringham said. "I mean, my phone rang off the hook."

Deer can gobble up acres of crops, so much so that that DNR issues agricultural damage permits that allow farmers and landowners to harvest antlerless deer in order to reduce the impact on such things as corn and soybeans.

"You’d think those farmers would be like, ‘Kill ‘em all. They’re eating my corn,’ " Stringham said. "It was completely the opposite."

Wardens get shined

Wardens fanned out across the county, following up on tips. They set up decoys and watched and waited. One night, they spotted a vehicle shining deer.

When the vehicle passed, the occupants actually shined Stringham and another warden.

"They shined us with the light and they took off at 70 mph," she said. The wardens chased the vehicle. "We stopped them and they had a loaded crossbow."

That's against the law.

Shining wildlife is fairly popular in Wisconsin. "It’s a great pastime. People love to do it," Stringham said.

It's legal except that from Sept. 15 through Dec. 31, it’s illegal to shine after 10 p.m. And, "when you shine, you can never possess a weapon inside your vehicle," Stringham said.

Once wardens had their suspects identified, they began to build their case.

"They lied," Stringham said. "They took all the evidence and hid it off their property."

Tips continued to come in.

"We put a lot of time in on this," Stringham said.

Wardens eventually took their case to the district attorney, who did not hesitate to file charges.

"The judge, the district attorney ... they took our case seriously," Stringham said. So did the landowners, farmers, hunters and non-hunters who called in tips.

"It was a team effort by our great community," she said, adding that she was concerned the case would reflect negatively on hunters.

"The people we serve are law-abiding people who respect these deer," Stringham said. "I don’t want these guys to reflect on the people of Vernon County or deer hunters in general."

Contact Joe Taschler at (414) 224-2554 or jtaschler@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JoeTaschler or Facebook at facebook.com/joe.taschler.1.