A Viola man will spend the next year in jail for his part in what police and prosecutors said was "a slaughter" of deer, turkeys and game birds apparently killed just for fun.

Richland County Circuit Judge Kent Houck sentenced Michael T. Olson , 28, to the maximum penalty of a year in the county jail. Olson pleaded guilty to two criminal counts of violating game laws by shooting a deer out of season and shooting a fawn, failing to tag or register it, and butchering it.

In addition to his jail term, Olson will pay $7,190.80 in fines and court costs for the two criminal counts, as well as 15 civil violations of hunting laws. Under Houck's sentence, Olson lost his rights to hunt, fish or trap in Wisconsin for nine years.

"This was a horrible case," said Eric Peterson, Richland County assistant district attorney.

The two criminal charges are just the tip of the mountain of game law violations charged against Olson and his hunting partner, Doug Wood, 25, Hillsboro. Wood has indicated he will plead innocent and has asked for time to hire an attorney, Peterson said.

In December, wardens charged the pair with 44 violations of state hunting rules for shooting deer out of season, shining deer, killing turkeys and other game birds for fun and wasting the meat, and repeatedly shooting from vehicles.

Worst of all, said observers, was that the men told wardens they would shoot some animals and not try to retrieve them.  "It was literally a slaughter," Peterson said.

The charges were the result of a two-year investigation by Mike Nice, a Department of Natural Resources warden for Richland County. Local police and other wardens helped.

"These aren't hunters, they're slobs," Nice said when the men were charged. "They ruin it for people who work hard and make hunting a sporting opportunity."

Update 5/22/97:  A man who game wardens say spent two years violating hunting rules while killing wildlife will have to spend a year in jail and has been fined more than $15,000.

Doug Wood, 25, of Hillsboro, also must surrender his .22 caliber rifle, and lose hunting and fishing privileges for 15 years, Judge Kent Houck said.

Wood's fine of $15,440 is greater because "he was the trigger-man in 90 percent of situations," game warden Mike Nice said.

Update 9/14/99:  A Readstown man claimed he was "addicted to hunting" after state game wardens again charged him with illegal hunting just months after he served a jail term for poaching.

Michael T. Olson , 30, was formally in Vernon County Circuit Court with 10 criminal misdemeanors stemming from the 1998 deer season.

"This guy isn't a deer hunter, he's a deer killer," said Brian Ekern, assistant district attorney for Vernon County.

In 1997, Richland County Judge Kent Houck sentenced Olson to a year in jail, $7,190 in fines and a nine-year loss of hunting privileges for what the prosecutor called "a slaughter" of deer, turkeys and game birds apparently killed for fun.

Court records show Olson served from March to December 1997 in the Richland County Jail.  But during the 1998 deer hunting season, wardens Mike Nice, John Buss and Ron Nerva say Olson took to the woods again.

According to their report, Olson hunted eight of the nine days of the 1998 gun deer season on land in the Vernon County town of Liberty, despite not having a hunting license.

They charge that Olson shot a doe Nov. 24 and tagged it with a tag registered to his wife, Vicki. Two days later, they charge, he shot from the cab of a truck to kill a nine-point buck.

When wardens visited the Olson's trailer home in Readstown, they seized the mounted buck, which they said was hanging on the wall next to a photo of the dead deer. A caption on the photo read "Having Fun."

"What really bothers me is that they can go get a head mount of a deer, and put it right on the living room wall and have no conscience about it," Nice said.

When Buss asked Olson why he again went hunting, his notes show that Olson replied, "I'm addicted to it, I'm addicted to hunting."

The wardens said they received multiple tips from people that Olson was hunting without a license.

Ekern said Olson is being charged as a repeat offender, and faces a penalty enhancement that could result in jail terms of up to three years on each of the 10 counts.

He faces fines of $20,660 on the criminal counts. In addition, because Olson did not show up for his court date on seven additional civil charges connected with the 1998 hunt, guilty pleas were entered and he faces an additional $1,955 in fines.

Update 9/15/99:  Olson who spent 10 months in jail for poaching has been charged again with violating game laws, telling investigators he was "addicted to hunting."

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