Cop Caught Poaching
Police officer in Fort Indiantown Gap, PA suspended without pay for shooting, skinning, and transporting wildlife while on duty. Used his service weapons to kill the animals and made homemade silencers for them. Search warrant revealed mortar rounds & flash grenades in his home.
Fort Indiantown Gap police officer suspended after allegations he shot bobcat while on duty
A Fort Indiantown Gap police officer has been suspended without pay after two of his fellow officers told the state Game Commission that he shot several white-tailed deer and a bobcat while on duty.
Game Commission officers started investigating Richard G. Behne Jr., 47, of Newport, in May. The two Fort Indiantown Gap officers provided written statements that Behne was shooting wildlife while he worked, according to a search warrant for Behne's home filed in Perry County District Court.
One of the officers said Behne admitted using his own .308-caliber hunting rifle and his department-issued AR 15 patrol rifle to shoot the deer, according to the search warrant.
Staff Sgt. Matt Jones, a spokesman for Fort Indiantown Gap, confirmed Friday that Behne has been suspended without pay pending the outcome of the Game Commission investigation. Jones also said that another police department employee, whom he did not identify, resigned July 9.
An internal investigation centered on the 29-member Fort Indiantown Gap police department also is still ongoing, Jones said. The facility in Lebanon County is a training center for the military.
Travis Lau, a spokesman for the Game Commission, said Friday that he could not comment on the pending investigation or disclose whether other Fort Indiantown Gap police officers are being investigated. He also said the Game Commission's policy is to withhold comment on criminal charges that may be pending.
When reached by telephone Friday, Behne said, "The only thing I can say is I'm not expecting to be charged." He said he could not comment further because of the ongoing investigation.
Game Commission officers applied June 12 for the search warrant for Behne's Mulberry Street residence, which uncovered a bevy of hunting-related items. A copy of the search warrant showed the items seized were:
One bobcat skin,
Three wild turkey beards,
Eight sets of white-tailed deer antlers,
Frozen turkey and deer meat,
One wild turkey tail,
A photo album filled with hunting pictures,
Six M203 grenade training round projectiles,
Two flash grenades,
Two M60 fuse igniters,
One M116 A1 grenade simulator,
Two 155 mm artillery rounds,
Two 80 mm mortar rounds.
One of the Gap officers who spoke with Game Commission Officer Brian Sheetz reported that Behne showed off a cellphone picture of the bobcat. Behne was in his Gap officer uniform in the picture, the officer said.
The officer also reported working with Behne in April. One night that month, the officer said Behne started unloading his patrol rifle and patrol shotgun and loaded his own ammunition into the weapons. He did this "in case they see anything," the officer told the Game Commission officer, according to court documents.
Additionally, the Gap officer said Behne claimed to have made homemade silencers to shoot the deer. Behne showed the officer a silencer he made out of PVC piping and steel wool, according to documents filed in support of the search warrant request.
Moreover, the officer said Behne claimed to have cut off the heads of the deer, quartered their bodies and placed the body parts into garbage bags in his personal vehicle. Behne did this with skinning knives and a saw. He told the officer the best time to do it was during a holiday because no one was around, according to court documents.
The second officer interviewed by Sheetz, the Game Commission officer, claimed that Behne wanted to drive around the Gap in his patrol vehicle to "search for a buck," the court documents stated. Behne allegedly offered to allow the officer to shoot a deer while he drove the vehicle.
This officer also told Game Commission officers that Behne showed off photographs of himself in which he was holding a white-tailed deer fawn while in his uniform. Another photograph showed him holding a "wild turkey poult," and Behne bragged about how a hen was yelping for him to release the poult, the officer said, according to court documents.
Behne is a former Newport police officer. He and Barry Keller, another former Newport officer, filed a civil rights lawsuit against the borough after its council voted in 2012 to disband the borough police force.
Behne was suspected by some Newport council members of defecating on the floor of borough hall, but he later passed a polygraph test that excluded him as a suspect, a judge handling the civil rights lawsuit noted.
The civil rights lawsuit is still ongoing. A trial is scheduled to begin in October and a mediator has been appointed in the case.
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