Year-long poaching investigation in Lexington ends with two guilty pleas

LEXINGTON, N.Y. (NEWS10)-- After a yearlong investigation conducted by the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), two New Jersey men were charged and pleaded guilty to illegally poaching a deer in the front yard of a residence in November 2023.

In November 2023, the DEC Environmental Conservation Officers (ECOs) were called to a home in Lexington for a report of a deer taken illegally from the front yard of another house. The incident was caught on a Ring camera, showing a deer being shot and two men in a black pick-up truck loading it into the bed and driving away.

Lieutenant Anthony Glorioso along with ECO Lucas Palmateer and ECO Jason Smith investigated the incident to narrow the vehicle down to a pick-up truck registered to a New Jersey resident. On the opening day of the 2024 Southern Zone regular firearms season on November 16, 2024, Smith and Palmateer located the truck parked at a public hunting spot in Lexington.

The officers followed the truck back to a nearby hunting camp where the driver was identified as the same individual in the ring camera video. They then found the other subject at the hunting camp.

The DEC did not release the names or identities of those charged. Both subjects, however, admitted to the officers of their involvement.

According to the DEC, the two admitted to illegally shooting and killing the deer from the roadway in November 2023. ECOs charged the two with possessing a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle, taking a deer from a public roadway, discharging a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, illegally killing a white-tailed deer and failing to properly tag the deer.

At the hunting camp, officers reportedly found an untagged seven-point buck, which resulted in another charge for failing to tag deer as required by law.

On November 22, 2024, the two people pleaded guilty in the town of Lexington Court. Both paid fines totaling $2,500.