Grant Rodgers

The Des Moines Register

An Iowa farmer has lost his fight to keep a valuable set of antlers from a trophy whitetail deer that he claims was suffering from a broken leg when he killed it out of mercy.

Conservation officers with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources seized the 14-point set of antlers in November 2013 from a garage in Marion County as part of an investigation into four Oklahoma men who allegedly had traveled to Iowa to illegally hunt deer without proper nonresident licenses.

But Marvin Clark, a longtime farmer who lives near Columbia, Iowa, claimed that he shot the deer one year earlier after spotting the buck stuck in a creek bottom with a broken leg. Clark said he shot the deer with his own bow, and the antlers were marked with a landowner/tenant tag issued to Clark when they were seized the next year.

In a November interview, Clark said that he had not yet attached his tag when he chose to cut off the deer's head before moving the 250- to 300-pound animal's body out of the creek.

A doe with antlers? Hunter thought he scored his biggest buck yet

In a Thursday ruling from Knoxville, Iowa, Judge Paul Huscher of Iowa's District 5A Court said Iowa law clearly reads that a tag must be attached to a harvested deer's antlers "before the carcass is moved to be transported by any means from the place where the deer was taken."

"Clark urges the court should be more concerned with the spirit of the law than the letter of the law," Huscher wrote. "The court finds that Clark complied with neither, and that he has not shown ownership or his right to possession of the deer or any of its parts."

The judge also found that Clark waited too long to report the harvested deer to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Under Iowa law, hunters must report a kill by midnight the day after a harvested deer is tagged, Huscher wrote.

Clark did not report harvesting the trophy buck until five days after he claimed to have found the suffering deer. Authorities valued the antlers at $5,000 to $20,000 in court documents connected to the case.

After seizing the antlers, conservation officers initially charged Clark with a misdemeanor charge of unlawful possession of a whitetail deer based on his own account of killing the buck and moving the head. A judge dismissed the charge in October, but prosecutors sought to permanently seize the antlers under a state forfeiture law that allows law enforcement to keep evidence in criminal cases if it wasn't legally obtained.

Clark's legal battle to have the antlers returned won support from Iowa state Rep. Greg Heartsill, a Republican from Chariton who criticized prosecutors for trying to keep the antlers without winning a criminal conviction. He also called for changes to the state's administrative rules for transporting deer.

But Benjamin Hayek, an assistant Marion County attorney who has since left the office for another job, contended in court documents that Clark's story was self-serving. Conservation officers had gathered evidence that suggested an Oklahoma hunter illegally shot the deer and that Clark later found the animal and used his tag to claim it, he wrote in one brief.

In his ruling, Huscher noted that he made his decision solely on Clark's account of finding the deer, and that he ignored any arguments about an Oklahoma hunter being the actual shooter.

Farmer, wildlife officials square off over prize antlers

William Kutmus, a West Des Moines lawyer who represented Clark, said that he doubted the farmer would appeal the judge's ruling. He contended that the seizure of the antlers was based on technicalities in the state's law on transporting harvested animals.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has not yet made a decision on what to do with the antlers, marked by a distinctive black drop tine jutting from the bottom of the right antler, spokesman Kevin Baskins said. The antlers could either be destroyed or placed on display for educational purposes to promote the agency's Turn In Poachers program.

"This whole case started with a call to our tip line," he said. "The officers were able to follow up on a tip from the tip line and ultimately the investigation led to this result.”

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