Jeffrey Scott Hawn, the Texas businessman facing multiple criminal counts in the killing of 32 bison in South Park, turned himself in at the Park County Jail earlier this week, the Park County Sheriff’s Office said today.
While there, said the sheriff’s department, Hawn, 44, of Austin, posted the $15,000 bail set by District Judge Stephen Groome.
Groome has given Hawn, who has a home and ranch in South Park, permission to travel outside Colorado, but the judge is determining whether Hawn can leave the country.
According to an arrest warrant issued last week, the bison apparently were killed over a span of a couple of weeks.
A group of hunters claimed that Hawn, in a letter sent to one of them Feb. 25, said they could kill the bison, which belonged to South Park rancher Monte Downare.
The hunters, from Gardner, told investigators that when they arrived at the Hawn Ranch in March, they discovered bison that had been killed before they arrived. Two men in the group said they saw a total of 11 dead bison when they arrived. One man, Antonino Salcedo, the leader of the hunting party, said Hawn admitted killing two of the bison.
Most of the 32 bison were killed on federal land and lands belonging to other property owners. Only three were found on Hawn’s property.
Hawn, according to investigators, had been outraged that Downare’s bison were straying onto his ranch. Hawn claimed the wandering animals had damaged Hawn’s fences, trees and grasses.
Investigators said that a spent cartridge near four dead bison on U.S. Forest land had been “conclusively” matched by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to the 30.06 rifle taken from Hawn’s house.
The loss to Downare was $77,000, according to investigators.
Pamela Mackey, the Denver lawyer now representing Hawn, said she would have no comment on the case.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
