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Photo courtesy of the OSP These big-game trophies were some of the animals poached by Scott Dungey's clients before police broke up the ring in 1997. Notorious poacher requests new start By MARK FREEMAN Since he walked into the federal penitentiary in Sheridan Nov. 23, the Rogue Valley's most notorious big-game poacher has been known as federal prisoner No. 61459-065. At 12:01 a.m. Wednesday in his Medford home, No. 61459-065 will shed his numeric identity and the electronic monitoring bracelet around his ankle will be turned off. Donald Scott Dungey will end his 10 1/2 months as a federal prisoner and begin his first of three years under a probation officer's supervision for running an illegal operation that led out-of-state clients on big-game poaching expeditions in Southern Oregon. The 49-year-old Dungey said he's repented and ready for life without hunting. He hopes it is one away from the spotlight as well. "I poached big-game animals," Dungey said Wednesday in Medford, where he has lived since Sept. 15 under house confinement and with work privileges. "I went to prison. I paid my fine. I had my life completely destroyed. I paid my debt to society. "Now," he said, "I'd like to be left alone." Beginning Wednesday, he will celebrate this new start by revisiting one of his old pursuits that originally was sacrificed along with his freedom when he pleaded guilty to federal poaching laws. "Wednesday, I'm going fishing," Dungey said. "And Thursday, and Friday and Saturday. And I'm sorry if anybody in this valley doesn't like it." Despite an original sentence that included three-year bans on all hunting and fishing, Dungey gained his fishing privileges back while still in a federal prison camp at Sheridan. The privilege was returned in July by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Jones, who rescinded his original no-fishing condition to Dungey's probation as part of his Oct. 23, 1998 sentencing. Jones issued a similar ruling for Jason Forrest Dungey, Scott's son and co-defendant in the poaching case. The two Dungeys could be back at the West Coast bass-fishing tournament circuit together soon -- and Dungey has Jones' blessing in this pursuit. "If he has a legal fishing license, he can fish where he wants to fish," Jones said. "That doesn't trouble me. He's done his time for his crime. We'll see how he comes out of it." Dungey will come out of his time as a federal prisoner about a year after he began it as the region's first big-game hunting guide convicted under federal wildlife poaching statutes. On Oct. 23, 1998, Dungey pleaded guilty before Jones to 11 federal felonies for taking out-of-state hunters -- mostly Michigan members of the Safari Club International hunting organization -- on poaching expeditions in Southern Oregon for blacktail deer, Roosevelt elk, cougar and other species. Some of the animals were killed by SCI members illegally spotlighting at night, hunting during closed seasons or without licenses, or while shooting from vehicles, according to the Oregon State Police. The deer won the shooters praise as top blacktails in record books kept by SCI chapter members in Michigan. The records were later stripped, and most of the Michigan men pleaded guilty to misdemeanors. Jason Dungey pleaded guilty in Jones' Portland courtroom to one federal misdemeanor for his role in the ring. He received a $2,400 fine and five years probation that includes bans on all hunting, fishing and guiding. At Scott Dungey's sentencing on Oct. 23, Jones called it the most egregious wildlife poaching case that had ever come before Oregon's four current federal judges. Jones sentenced Dungey to a year and a day in federal prison plus a $9,000 fine and three years probation without any hunting, fishing or guiding. After his sentencing, documents seized by Oregon State Police investigators revealed that Scott Dungey had acted as a paid informant for activists who led the 1994 initiative to ban hound-hunting for bears and cougars. Dungey reported last Nov. 23 to the federal prison in Sheridan and was immediately placed in a nearby minimum-security work camp. While there, he watched hunting shows on television and felt empathy for the animals that died legally and illegally, because of his actions, he said. Dungey said he now has no interest in his former profession, preferring to help preserve the environment and even help wildlife officers curb poaching in the woods. "I'm just tired of it all," Dungey said. "I have no desire to hunt again." But he said as the desire for hunting waned, he pined to fish again for bass. So he wrote the letter to Jones asking for his fishing privileges back so he and his family can pursue this outdoor passion together. "I felt it was reasonable," Jones said. Jones issued Scott Dungey's request on July 23. A similar one followed Aug. 11 for Jason Dungey. The changes irritate OSP Sgt. Walt Markee, who headed the Dungey investigation and was not asked if he opposed the no-fishing rule. "(Scott Dungey) is a convicted poacher and he should not be allowed to partake in those activities," Markee said. "It's almost like getting his sentence reduced." Scott Dungey sees it differently. His future fishing, he said, is irrelevant to his past hunting. "It's like saying a golfer can't snow ski," Dungey said. "I never broke a fishing law. "I got lucky, and the judge was a compassionate man." Dungey said now he wants compassion from people in Medford. Scott Dungey has been back in Medford since Sept. 15. He was originally released from the federal prison camp to a Eugene halfway house on Sept. 7. He still wears an electronic bracelet that allows his whereabouts to be tracked, and he's allowed to leave home to go to work. But Wednesday, Dungey sheds these final conditions of his life as prisoner No. 61459-065 end. He will emerge a convicted big-game poacher, ready to keep his nose clean and his bass boat wet. "I'll never break a law again," Dungey said. "I'll never run a stop sign. I'll never be taken away from my family again. "I made a mistake. End of story." (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA