I take no offense Hogwild, to you or anything said for or against here, you are entitled to your opinion. That is what makes our country great. This whole thing from the start has been a technicality. I contend I was walking back to my truck as I swore in court. Chris says I was hunting. There have been very few of these tried as standalone charges. They are usually coupled with hunting at night or some other illegal activity. It is extremely difficult to find case precedence because very little exist. This year state legislators raised the fine by a factor of 4. You will see a lot of these in the future unless some clarification is provided. I wish our system was simple enough to go into court and state what happened and the officer do the same and get a fair ruling. Apparently it quit working that way long ago in our judicial system. Now it is based on precedence, rules, interpretation of law, and technicalities. My whole family is attorneys in Talladega and Tuscaloosa. Out of 7 siblings two of us are not attorneys. My first cousin is an attorney that all of you probably know. I live full time on a sailboat in Mobile. Throughout the year I deal a lot with Coast Guard, DCNR and Marine Police. From a lifetime of this my only charge of a violation was this one. Not so much as an expired flare or life jacket problem. Common sense would make most wonder why someone that has dealt with these people and respected the law his whole life suddenly went rogue.
As well, after this appeal I will have spent over twice what the fine would have been. Why would I do that to just weasel out? I paid the ticket as soon as the judge ruled and then I appealed. I just do not think it is right in any way the way I was treated for walking down a railroad. I do not feel those who wrote the law ever intended for how it is being used by LEO’s. It all tends to come around, next time it may well be someone you know arguing a charge and not just some stranger it happened to. I by myself do not have the power to change the law or how our judicial system works. All I can do is to continue to fight as long as I can and as hard as I can for what I believe, and god will decide the rest.



In reality this thread has probably done more to bring attention to our rights and regulations as hunters than many documents produced in Alabama this year. I think everyone here has made valid points, even Patriot. And heaven knows I have never known an OS to be right on anything.