A Hunting Personality Is Suing a Game Warden, Claiming Bogus Bait Charges Ruined His Reputation
Luster is now seeking compensation for the money he spent defending himself in court, along with punitive damages for the defendant, Officer Dan Henderson of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. The DNR did not respond to a request for comment as of press time.
Filed May 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, the hunter's lawsuit accuses Henderson, who has 15 years with the DNR, of violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. It alleges that Henderson deliberately and illegally obtained a search warrant to pin Luster with charges of hunting over bait, all in an effort to punish him for his success.
'No doubt, Luster is known to the DNR. Luster is a professional hunting consultant and a renowned hunter,' reads a copy of the lawsuit obtained by Outdoor Life. 'Luster has been incredibly successful as a professional hunter, and he has 'bagged' some of the most prized trophy-worthy bucks. With this success, however, has come animosity from other hunters and the DNR, including its officers like Officer Henderson.'
Read Next: Game Wardens Can Surveil Private Land with Trail Cams. But That's Now Being Challenged in Pennsylvania's Supreme Court
To support the claims of Luster's 'expertise,' the lawsuit mentions the 209-inch Iowa buck, nicknamed 'Zeus,' that Luster tagged in 2020 and was featured in Bowhunter magazine. But there is another whitetail buck at the root of Luster's lawsuit — one he killed the past season.
On Oct. 14, 2024, Luster arrowed a big whitetail buck with a bow, according to the suit. He was on a hunting property in Henry County that he and a friend owned under a LLC, and he was able to recover the deer the next morning. Just before 11 a.m. on Oct. 15, Luster posted a picture of the dead buck on Facebook along with a single-word caption: 'Checkmate!'
Roughly two hours before Luster posted that photo, however, Officer Henderson had received a Turn in Poachers complaint about Luster from an unnamed source. The informant told Henderson they knew Luster had been baiting the hunting property because they flew over the same property with their drone on Aug. 10 and took pictures of bait there, which they shared with the game warden.
The bait wouldn't have been a violation of Iowa's game laws, which require hunters to remove any bait from a hunting area at least 10 days before the start of the first deer season. (The 2024-25 season opened in September.) The tip led Henderson to investigate further, though, and while looking through Luster's Facebook photos he found two trail camera pictures that were taken Oct. 9, and which showed a buck standing over a bare dirt spot near a blind and a bean field.
Henderson used those trail cam photos to apply for a search warrant on Oct 16. During his sworn testimony, he told the judge he'd learned of the buck Luster harvested 'in passing,' and he said the bare spot in the photos was clearly an area where bait or minerals had been placed at one time. The judge issued the warrant, which allowed Henderson to collect soil samples at the hunting property.
Lab analysis of those soil samples showed 'over 500 Mg of sodium at the bait site as well as DEET being a chemical used in the bait,' according to the lawsuit. And on Nov. 15, Luster applied for a second warrant to search Luster's house, pointing to the lab results as probable cause. (The presence of sodium could have meant that a salt block or other minerals had been placed there at some point, although the lawsuit contends that this concentration is within the normal range for soils in southeastern Iowa.)
On Nov. 18, Henderson executed that search warrant and charged Luster at his residence with three misdemeanors. One was for making a false ownership claim to get a landowner's tag, and the other two were for hunting deer in the presence of bait.
Luster's case was heard in Henry County, where he killed the buck in October. On Jan. 10, the state dismissed the first charge; it had verified that Luster was a part owner in the LLC that owned the hunting property.
The other two charges were dismissed in March, according to the lawsuit, which states that both bait charges (hunting over bait and 'attempting to hunt over bait') were unfounded. Luster's attorney takes those claims one step further, alleging in the suit that Henderson was acting 'maliciously' by bringing the charges and violating Luster's Fourth Amendment rights in the process.
'When he applied for the search warrants as described above, Officer Henderson intentionally and recklessly made material misstatements and omissions in his affidavits in support of those applications,' the lawsuit reads. 'Officer Henderson's intentional and reckless material misstatements were maliciously made by him with evil motive and intent.'
The suit points out that Henderson's initial application for a search warrant was based on two pieces of evidence: the trail camera photos taken earlier in October, which don't show any bait on the ground or any sign that deer are eating bait, and the drone photographs taken by the confidential informant who called in the complaint against Luster on Oct. 15.
Those photos, however, were obtained illegally, the lawsuit states. Iowa law prohibits drone operators from flying a remotely piloted aircraft over private property, and this simple misdemeanor is elevated to a serious misdemeanor if that aircraft is equipped with a surveillance device, such as a camera.
The lawsuit alleges that although Henderson's investigation was sparked by the aerial drone photos and the claims made by a confidential informant, he mentioned neither in his sworn affidavit applying for his initial search warrant — and instead claimed that he learned about Luster's Oct. 15 buck 'in passing.' If Henderson had been upfront about the informant and their claims and photographs, the suit contends, he would have had to 'establish the credibility of the informant' as required by state law, which would have revealed that the drone photos were obtained illegally, and likely would have prevented the judge from issuing a search warrant in the first place.
In March, while fighting the charges in court, Luster filed a motion to have the evidence that resulted from those searches suppressed. Henderson chose not to disclose the identity of the confidential informant during that suppression hearing, and when pushed on this by the Assistant Henry County Attorney, both Henderson and the DNR continued to withhold the informant's identity. (It's unclear if this was done according to DNR procedure. Iowa law protects the identity of confidential informants during law enforcement investigations, but it makes exceptions during formal court proceedings.)
Read Next: Tennessee Judges Rein in Game Wardens, Declaring Warrantless Searches on Private Land Unconstitutional
'[This] failure to disclose the identity of a material witness leaves open the very real possibility that despite Officer Henderson's sworn testimony,' the suit reads, 'no confidential informant unassociated with law enforcement exists.'
Taken altogether, the lawsuit contends, the unlawful searches, along with the intentional misstatements and omissions made by Officer Henderson during his investigation, amount to serious violations of Luster's Fourth Amendment rights.
'As a result of the unlawful searches … and Officer Henderson's pursuit of charges against Luster without lawful probable cause,' the suit concludes, 'Luster has suffered injury to his reputation, harm to his mental health, and economic losses.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
a day ago
- New York Post
Families try to clawback money from NYPD officers' killers
The outraged loved ones of two NYPD officers gunned down in cold blood are fighting to keep the killers from collecting hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal payouts. The families of slain Police Officer Russel Timoshenko, who was killed in 2007, and Detective Brian Simonsen, who was murdered in 2019, are filing lawsuits under the state's 'Son of Sam Law,' which prohibits criminals from profiting off their crimes, they told The Post. Lee Woods was convicted of murder for fatally shooting Timoshenko in the face and head during a traffic stop in Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn. The officer was just 23 — one of the youngest cops ever killed in the line of duty. 8 Hearthbroken mom Tatyana Timoshenko still goes to a Staten Island cemetery to be with her son on holidays. Leonardo Munoz Woods is set to get $250,000 after suing individual correction officers and the state in U.S. District Court in the Northern District of New York over his alleged mistreatment at maximum security Auburn Correctional Facility while serving a life sentence for Timoshenko's death. Learning of the settlement enraged the dead police officer's mom, who left a job in private industry to work in Information Technology at the NYPD to feel closer to her dead son. 'I don't want him to be rewarded even one penny for killing my son and being in prison for the crime that he committed,' Tatyana Timoshenko, who moved to the United States with her husband and son from the Russian republic of Balarus when he was 9, told The Post. 'I had only one child. I used to live for him and he was stolen from me.' 8 Timoshenko is trying to stop Lee Woods from getting $250,000 he was awarded after suing an upstate prison for keeping him in solitary confinement, court records show. Spencer A. Burnett 8 Russel Timoshenko was killed when he and his partner tried to pull over a BMW SUV in Brooklyn. Jeff Day Timoshenko, 59, and her husband Leonid, are suing Woods in Richmond County Surpreme Court to stop the payment. Russel Timoshenko survived for five days in the hospital after he was shot — and his mother remembers how she screamed when he died. The mom, who still wears a necklace that holds a tiny silver badge with her son's name on it, spent months with her school bus driver husband sitting in a chair by their son's grave at the Moravian Cemetery in Staten Island. 8 Widow Leanne Simonsen lost her husband in 2007 when he was killed while trying to stop a phone story robbery in Queens. J.C. Rice Today, that's where they can be found on holidays, including Mother's Day and Father's Day. 'This is my life,' she said, as tears fell from her eyes. 'On the holidays, we visit his grave because he can't come visit us.' Simonsen was killed in a hail of bullets fired by other cops after a robber drew a fake pistol during a T-Mobile store robbery in South Richmond Hill, Queens, in February 2019. 8 Jagger Freeman. who was convicted in the killing and sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, is set to get $243,000. His imprisoned killers, Jagger Freeman and Christopher Ransom, are set to receive $243,900 and $123,600, respectively. Ransom, who was wielding the prop and wearing a ski mask when he forced employees to open a safe in the back of the store, pleaded guilty to aggravated manslaughter and robbery in 2021. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison. Jagger Freeman, who orchestrated the robbery, was found guilty in 2022 of murder in the second degree, robbery, assault and grand larceny. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. 8 Simonsen's wife Leanne is hugged by then-Police Commissioner James O'Neill during the funeral service of her husband at Saint Rosalie Roman Catholic Church in Long Island. J. Conrad Williams Jr. They were among 4,000 pretrial detainees who sued the city as part of a class-action suit, claiming that they were placed in solitary confinement in cells at Rikers Island for up to 23 hours a day. Simonson's widow, Leanne, said she was 'appalled' to learn of the planned payments. 'I couldn't believe that they were getting rewarded for being criminals. It's like the state is taking sides with the criminals and us victims are just hung out to dry,' she said. 8 Detective Simonsen was killed when one of the robbers at a T-Mobile store pulled a fake gun, causing police officers outside to fire through the glass and strike their brother-in-blue. William Miller Lawyer James Moschella, who represents the Detectives Endowment Association, filed suit for both police officer families. 'These two cases are the perfect examples of the just and appropriate use of the NYC Executive Law, the so-called Son of Sam law,' said Moschella, of Karasyk Moschella in Manhattan. 'It will ensure that these defendants, all of whom are responsible for the murder of two brave NYC police detectives will not profit from their incarceration.' Moschella filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Supreme Court, where Simonsen's widow lives, to stop her husband's killers from getting the money. He filed the suit for the Timoshenko family in Richmond County Supreme Court. 8 Christopher Ransom, the robber who pulled out the imitation gun, sparking the gunfire that left the officer dead, is set to receive $123,600. Detectives Endowment President Scott Munro said the payments could erode public safety. 'Pamper cop killers, destroy public safety,' he said. 'It's that simple.' Lawyers for the inmates in their civil cases didn't return calls seeking comment.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Feds charge SoCal medical workers with interfering in ICE raid
Two staff members from an Ontario surgery center have been charged with allegedly interfering with U.S. immigration officers trying to detain landscapers who ran into the center to escape. Jose de Jesus Ortega, a 38-year-old Highland resident, was arrested Friday morning and is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Riverside, according to a U.S. attorney's office Central District of California news release. Officials are still looking for the other suspect, Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona. Both are charged with assaulting a federal officer and conspiracy to prevent by force and intimidation a federal officer from discharging his duties, authorities said. According to video obtained by KTLA-TV, staffers at the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center earlier this month told two agents to leave because they didn't have a warrant to go onto the property. The agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement were trying to detain 30-year-old Denis Guillen-Solis and two other landscapers who had been working outside and ran into the surgical center when the agents showed up. In the video, Guillen-Solis is shown holding onto the doorway at the surgical center and asking the agents to present identification. The agents then pulled Guillen-Solis from the doorway and detained him. 'The illegal alien arrested inside the surgery center was not a patient. He ran inside for cover and these defendants attempted to block his apprehension by assaulting our agents," said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in a statement. According to an affidavit, the two ICE agents wore government-issued equipment, including vests and were using unmarked government-operated vehicles when they conducted their operations. The agents followed a truck with three men inside and approached them after the men exited the truck in the parking lot of the surgery center, according to the release. Two of the men ran away and one of them, an alleged undocumented immigrant from Honduras, was detained near the surgery center's front entrance and tried to pull away, causing the ICE officer to fall to the ground. A medical staffer helped the man off the ground and pulled him away from the officer, according to the news release. The man went into the surgery center and was chased by the ICE agent, who eventually stopped him. The incident occurred amid an extraordinary immigration enforcement effort by the Trump administration in Southern California. Thousands of unauthorized immigrants — many without a criminal record — have been detained at work, in courthouses and on public streets going about their day. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
San Francisco Chronicle
2 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
A former Georgia deputy gets federal prison for beating a Black man in a jail cell
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A former Georgia sheriff's deputy has been sentenced to 16 months in federal prison for repeatedly punching a Black detainee whose beating by guards was recorded by a jail security camera nearly three years ago. A U.S. District Court judge sentenced 27-year-old Ryan Biegel on Thursday. The former Camden County deputy had pleaded guilty earlier this year to violating the due process rights of Jarrett Hobbs by using unreasonable force. Hobbs of Greensboro, North Carolina, was booked into the Camden County jail near the Georgia-Florida line for traffic violations and drug possession charges on Sept. 3, 2022. Security video from that night showed Hobbs standing alone in his cell before five guards rushed in and surrounded him. At least three deputies were shown punching him in the head and neck before Hobbs was dragged from the cell and hurled against a wall. Hobbs' attorneys, Harry Daniels and Bakari Sellers, said in a statement Friday that jailers 'beat him mercilessly' with false confidence they would never be prosecuted. 'Let this sentence serve as some solace to everyone who has been terrorized by violence masquerading as law and order and a warning to their brutalizers,' the lawyers' statement said. 'Your badge will not protect you any more than it protected Ryan Biegel.' Biegel's defense attorney, Adrienne Browning, said she had no immediate comment. Biegel and two other deputies, all of them white, were fired and arrested in connection with the assault on Hobbs, but not until more than two months later when one of Hobbs' attorneys obtained the video and made it public. All three still face state charges of battery and violating their oaths of office, according to Camden County Superior Court records. U.S. District Court records show federal charges being brought only against Biegel. It was Hobbs who was initially charged after being attacked in his cell. Prosecutors later dismissed charges of aggravated battery, simple assault and obstruction of law enforcement officers against Hobbs, citing a lack of evidence. Also dropped were the traffic violation and drug charges that had landed Hobbs in jail. Camden County officials paid Hobbs a cash settlement to avoid a civil lawsuit, but the amount was not disclosed.
