FORNEY, Texas — Since 1895, Texas Game Wardens have patrolled the vast Texas landscape serving the citizens to protect and conserve the natural resources of the state and to provide other law enforcement services such as search-and-rescue and water safety.
FORNEY, Texas — Since 1895, Texas Game Wardens have patrolled the vast Texas landscape serving the citizens to protect and conserve the natural resources of the state and to provide other law enforcement services such as search-and-rescue and water safety.
“Every day, game wardens encounter dangerous situations affecting both citizens and animals,” according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s website. “At a moment's notice, they must rush to investigate large-scale poaching cases, save victims from flash floods, disrupt illegal smuggling operations along the Gulf of Mexico and rescue injured wildlife.”
Earlier this year, Animal Planet premiered a new television series, Lone Star Law, which features game wardens from all over the state. Filming for the 11th episode, which aired on Thursday night, brought crews to Forney, Texas, for a man who was allegedly harassing a hunter — a violation of state law.
Filming for the episode took place in December 2015 as game wardens met with Forney Police Department Sergeant Shane Prewitt who, while off-duty, was attempting to bow hunt deer in the area east of the Windmill Farms neighborhood off of Townsend Road.
“Shane believes a neighboring ranch hand is trying to prevent other hunters from killing big bucks spotted in the area so that he can get the kill himself,” according to the show’s narrator. “He’s making noise to scare off deer from his own property so Shane can’t stop him.”
“This is actually a hunter harassment case,” stated Texas Game Warden Jeff Powell. “No person can intentionally interfere by disturbing or harassing wildlife while another person is engaged and they know that they are engaged in hunting.”
Such actions are a class B misdemeanor and punishable by fines up to $2,000 and possible jail time.
Powell went undercover and posed as a hunter and Lone Star Law film crews captured the man using a chainsaw, gunfire, and other methods of harassment to disturb their hunt.
Upon returning to the hunt at a later date, the man returns to cut down a tree along the road where the men are hunting. He is later captured on camera driving towards U.S. Highway 80 and discharging a rifle twice from the road.
When confronted by another game warden and Powell, now in uniform, the man claims to have legally shot a deer in a neighboring field.
“‘We found an empty shell casing that matched that same rifle showing that he did discharge that firearm from a public road,” stated Powell.
“A lot of our cases are made after the fact,” he said. “To be able to see somebody, catch them red-handed like we did, is pretty rare.”
“As a game warden, we are here to protect our hunters’ rights,” stated Powell. “So when a hunter comes and tells us he’s having problems, we’re going to be there.”
The man was arrested and transported to the Kaufman County Jail by Precinct 2 Constable Jason Johnson.
The man, identified by county court and jail records as Jody Woody of Forney, Texas, was charged with disorderly conduct discharge or display a firearm, untagged white-tail deer, a hunting provisions violation, and harassment of hunters, trappers, and fisherman. Woody posted bond and was released later that day, according to records.
Woody was also indicted for taking wildlife resources without consent of landowner, a state jail felony, and is awaiting trial.