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Powell man pleads not guilty to 18 wildlife violations

By
CJ Baker with the Powell Tribune, via the Wyoming News Exchange

POWELL — A rural Powell resident is facing a stack of criminal charges that allege he committed multiple wildlife-related violations over the past two decades. 
 

Grant L. Cadwallader, who was born in 1977, is accused of illegally killing two grizzly bears some time ago and illegally collecting grizzly claws, golden and bald eagle talons and feathers and bighorn sheep skulls. 
 

The Park County Attorney’s Office filed the 18 misdemeanor charges against Cadwallader in late August. He pleaded not guilty to all counts during a Thursday appearance in Park County Circuit Court and was released on his own recognizance. 
 

State and federal authorities began investigating Cadwallader in 2019; court records indicate their investigation stemmed from a tip provided by Cadwallader’s ex-wife, who reported the years-old allegations amid a custody dispute. 
 

Authorities executed a search warrant at Cadwallader’s Willwood home on Dec. 20, 2019, and seized eagle feathers and talons, bear claws, bighorn sheep heads with horns and electronic devices. Some of the claws and talons were in a jar, while others were a part of “an ornate necklace,” North Cody Game Warden Travis Crane of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department wrote in an affidavit. 
 

The items were sent to the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, where staff determined that the talons and feathers came from at least two different eagles and found that some of the claws came from a single grizzly, Crane wrote. The warden’s affidavit indicates that investigators believe Cadwallader obtained the grizzly claws from a bear he’d shot on the North Fork and acquired some of the bighorn sheep heads while working for a private company that helps capture and radio collar wildlife for research purposes. 
 

Crane and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Special Agent Bo Stone interviewed Cadwallader more than a year after they raided his home, in February 2021. The interview — which took place in the Powell office of Cadwallader’s then-attorney, Joey Darrah — was reportedly arranged in coordination with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming, indicating federal authorities had some interest in the case. 
 

Crane wrote that an assistant U.S. attorney provided Cadwallader with a proffer letter. While the affidavit doesn’t outline any specifics, such letters generally involve prosecutors agreeing to provide more favorable treatment if a defendant provides a full and truthful account of their actions. 
 

Oftentimes, the information a defendants share during a proffer can’t be used against them, but in this case, state prosecutors are using what Cadwallader said about his encounter with the grizzlies. 
The affidavit says Cadwallader guessed that the incident occurred sometime between 2002 and 2004 in the North Fork area. 
 

 

The affidavit quotes him as saying he was shed hunting when he stumbled upon a pair of grizzly cubs and was abruptly charged by their mother. Cadwallader said he shot the sow with his sidearm, but it kept charging, so he fired two more shots. The bruin then veered away and ran out of sight, the affidavit says. 
 

“Immediately after the sow disappeared, the cubs stood up and looked at Cadwallader, who immediately shot and killed each one of them without even thinking about it,” Crane wrote of the defendant’s account. “It was at this time that Cadwallader looked closer at the cubs, realizing they were each about 30 pounds in size. Cadwallader felt horrible about shooting them and at what he had just done.” 
 

Cadwallader and a companion later found the sow dead at the bottom of a ravine, and he removed five of its claws, the affidavit says. 
 

“Cadwallader never reported the shooting because he was scared of being prosecuted and going to jail,” Crane wrote. 
 

Park County prosecutors have charged Cadwallader with two counts of illegally taking a trophy game animal. Citing a personal policy of not commenting on pending cases, Deputy Park County Attorney Larry Eichele declined to clarify which grizzly bears Cadwallader is alleged to have illegally taken or to clarify the differing timelines referenced in the charging documents. 
 

In his 2021 interview, Cadwallader estimated that the incident occurred 17 to 19 years earlier, his companion reportedly thought it had been 10 to 15 years and a coworker guessed three to five years had passed. 
 

One of the illegal taking charges alleges the incident occurred between 2002 and 2004, another count of illegal taking includes a 2017 to 2020 timeline, while four counts alleging Cadwallader illegally possessed the grizzly claws, golden eagle feathers, golden eagle talons and bald eagle feathers references 2014 to 2019. 
 

Authorities found a photo of Cadwallader and a former coworker posing with a dead golden eagle — the coworker said the raptor had been hit by a vehicle in Utah — but the affidavit doesn’t say if the feathers or talons are believed to have come from that animal. 
 

The remaining 12 charges relate to 12 bighorn sheep skulls that Cadwallader allegedly collected in other states and brought to Wyoming without a required interstate game tag. By comparing the skulls to GPS-tagged photos found on Cadwallader’s electronic devices, Crane concluded that they came from Washington and California, which does not allow the collection of sheep heads. Some appeared to correspond to times and locations where he’d been doing wildlife capture work. 
 

Another 21 sheep heads seized from Cadwallader’s home also lacked tags, but were “of unknown origin,” Crane wrote. 
 

The warden added that Cadwallader obtained an interstate game tag for a bighorn sheep head he found in Park County in 2014, which indicated he understood the registration requirements. 
 

Each of the 18 misdemeanor charges against Cadwallader are punishable with jail time, fines and lost hunting privileges. 
 

Additionally, a conviction for illegally taking a grizzly bear is typically punished with tens of thousands of dollars in restitution. 
 

With Darrah having previously represented Cadwallader, Circuit Court Judge Ed Luhm of Worland is presiding over the case. Luhm set a trial for March 7.
 
This story was published on October 17, 2023. 

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