KTLA

Lifetime hunting ban for man found guilty of illegal hunting practices across 7 states

WARREN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – An Indiana man has been banned from hunting in the Hoosier State for life — a sentencing that’s the first of its kind in Indiana, according to the state’s Department of Natural Resources.

West Lafayette resident Hanson Pusey, 25, was found to be illegally hunting wild turkeys in seven states, according to officials with the department. He was sentenced Thursday to what the DNR called a “lifetime hunting suspension,” along with home detention, probation, and payment of fines in each state.


Indiana Conservation Officers began an investigation into Pusey in the spring of 2020, when they learned he had been hunting turkeys even after his privileges were suspended in March 2019.

DNR said investigators used advanced “surveillance techniques” to monitor Pusey and gather evidence of the hunter poaching in North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Indiana.

In addition, Pusey was found to be helping friends and family members poach turkeys, the DNR’s surveillance revealed.

During a search of Pusey’s house, officers found he’d kept the spent shotgun shells, identifying the states and dates he harvested turkeys.

Officers documented finding 83 spent casings in a collection that dated back to 2012. Fourteen of those were dated within three months of his first hunting suspension in 2019.

In addition to Pusey’s lifetime hunting ban in Indiana, the state’s DNR said punishments for various charges from the other states included $4,125 in fines and costs and an eight-year hunting license suspension in Pennsylvania; $324 in fines and costs and an indefinite suspension in Connecticut; $700 in fines and costs and license suspension during probation in Massachusetts; $2,335 in fines and costs in Georgia; $278 in fines and costs in North Carolina; and $525 in fines and costs in Tennessee.

Pusey was charged again in February for hunting without permission and theft of a trail camera card in Warren County, Indiana, DNR officials said, despite the ongoing 2020 investigation and his convictions in the other states.