West Greene board member pleads guilty to unauthorized hunting in Ohio
{child_flags:featured}Hunter pleads guilty
{child_byline}By Mike Jones
Regional editor
mjones@observer-reporter.com
{/child_byline}
The West Greene School Board member who recorded himself trapping animals for his internet television show has pleaded guilty in Ohio to hunting on properties where he did not have permission.
Robert L. Gilbert, 39, of Aleppo Township, pleaded guilty Nov. 19 in Jefferson County Court to 15 misdemeanor charges as part of an agreement with the Ohio attorney general’s office to withdraw three felony charges related to the case.
Kate Hanson, a spokeswoman with the attorney general’s office, confirmed the plea agreement and said Gilbert will be sentenced Jan. 28. Gilbert pleaded guilty to six counts of hunting without permission, five counts of receiving stolen property, two counts of failure to permanently tag whitetail deer and one count each of failure to permanently tag a wild turkey and leaving the state with an untagged wild turkey, Hanson said.
Gilbert was charged March 9 in the 18-count indictment after authorities said he and two other men poached deer and turkey on at least six occasions near Steubenville, Ohio, between 2011 and 2017. Nathan Cline, 39, of Steubenville, and Marlon Hale 39, of Irondale, Ohio, were also charged and accused of trespassing on private and public property, hunting out of season and failing to tag their harvests.
Gilbert’s defense attorney, Dominic Frank, said there was “no malice” involved in the hunts.
“These are low-grade misdemeanors,” Frank said of the guilty plea. “What they deal with is nothing unethical.”
Frank denied that Gilbert was poaching and said he had mistakenly drifted onto other properties where he did not have permission to hunt.
“This is a warning for all hunters: Even if you think you have permission, if you wander onto (another) property, you’re guilty,” Frank said. “It’s that simple.”
Investigators said Gilbert hosted a popular YouTube television show called “Trapping Time” that ran for three years and attracted more than 1,000 subscribers to his channel. In the shows, which include advertisements and commercial breaks, he traveled across the country and described to viewers various hunting and trapping techniques. Cline also appears in at least one of the 25-minute episodes.
Investigators accused Gilbert and the two men of profiting from the poaching by “receiving monetary payments for videotaped productions of the illicit scheme.” Pennsylvania Game Commission officers assisted the Ohio attorney general’s office in the investigation.
“If you do anything on your television show, maybe you need to do something educational for hunters,” Frank said he suggested for a segment Gilbert could do on his YouTube channel.
Frank expected Gilbert to pay a fine and the value of the deer, but doubted he would serve jail time. He did not think the guilty plea would affect Gilbert’s position on the West Greene School Board because the felony charges were withdrawn.
West Greene Superintendent Brian Jackson did not respond to requests for comment on how it could affect Gilbert’s status on the board.
Gilbert won a write-in campaign in November 2015 with 17 votes and began serving on West Greene School Board in 2016. His term is set to expire at the end of 2019, and his name remains listed as a board member on West Greene School District’s website.