Showing Animals Respect & Kindness v. United States Department of Interior

730 F. Supp. 2d 180, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81885, 2010 WL 3191801
CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedAugust 12, 2010
DocketCivil Action 09-877 (CKK)
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 730 F. Supp. 2d 180 (Showing Animals Respect & Kindness v. United States Department of Interior) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness v. United States Department of Interior, 730 F. Supp. 2d 180, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81885, 2010 WL 3191801 (D.D.C. 2010).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY, District Judge.

This is a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) case brought by Plaintiff Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (“Plaintiff’) against the United States Department of Interior (“DOI”) and its *185 component, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) (collectively, “Defendants”), relating to Plaintiffs requests for information about Defendants’ criminal investigation of Lee Marvin Greenly and Troy Lee Gentry for hunting and transporting a bear in violation of the Lacey Act, 16 U.S.C. §§ 3371-78. Defendants have produced records responsive to Plaintiffs FOIA requests, withholding and/or redacting some records (including photographs and video recordings) pursuant to various FOIA Exemptions. Defendants have filed a [16] Motion for Summary Judgment Or Alternatively, Motion for Partial Summary Judgment and In Camera Review of Certain Records, claiming that they have complied with all of their obligations under FOIA. Plaintiff opposes Defendants’ motion and has filed its own [20] Motion for Summary Judgment, contending that Defendants have improperly claimed an exemption with respect to certain photographs, videos, and written records containing information about Messrs. Greenly and Gentry. The parties have each filed replies to these motions, and they are now ripe for decision. After a thorough review of the parties’ submissions and attachments thereto and applicable case law and statutory authority, the Court shall GRANT-IN-PART Plaintiffs’ Motion for Summary Judgment and DENY-IN-PART Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment with respect to three video recordings identifying Messrs. Greenly and Gentry; the Court shall GRANT-IN-PART Defendants’ Motion for Summary Judgment and DENY-IN-PART Plaintiffs Motion for Summary Judgment in all other respects.

I. BACKGROUND

A. FWS and DOFs Investigation into Lee Marvin Greenly and Troy Lee Gentry

Lee Marvin Greenly (“Greenly”) is the operator of Minnesota Wildlife Connections, a wildlife photography business providing captive-held animals for individuals to photograph in a wild setting. Pl.’s Stmt. 1 ¶ 1. In 1998, Greenly acquired “Cubby,” a trophy-caliber, tame/captive-reared black bear. Id. After Cubby developed mouth problems that required expensive dental work, Mr. Greenly sold Cubby to Troy Lee Gentry (“Gentry”), a singer best known as half of the country-music duo Montgomery Gentry. See id. ¶¶2, 16; Decl. of Steve Hindi ¶ 17 & Att. 14 (“Country Star Charged in Tame Bear Killing”). The men arranged to have Gentry kill Cubby with a bow and arrow while the bear was enclosed in a one-acre pen on Greenly’s property. PL’s Stmt. ¶ 2. The taking of the black bear was videotaped and later edited to appear as though Gentry killed the bear in a true “fair chase” hunting situation. Id. In the video footage, the shooter is shown" climbing into a tree stand, dressed in camouflage with a bow and arrow, drawing the bow, shooting an *186 arrow that strikes the bear in the side and shooting a second arrow at the bear as it is walking away. Id. The video was edited to show the arrow traveling in slow motion as it struck the bear. Id. The video also contains a narrative in which the shooter talks to the camera about the hunt and how excited he was to have the opportunity to harvest the bear. Id. At least some of this video footage was prepared by Gentry for later use on television or in a music video. Id. ¶ 3. Gentry also arranged for photographs to be taken that implied he had killed a wild bear. Id. ¶ 4. (Defendants have released copies of these photographs with the faces of Gentry and Greenly redacted.) Id.

After killing Cubby, Gentry and Greenly tagged him with a Minnesota hunting license and registered the bear with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources as though it was lawfully taken from the wild population. See Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J., Att. 1 (Plea Agreement) at 395-96. 2 The men then facilitated the shipment of the bear’s hide from Minnesota to a taxidermist in Kentucky. Id. at 396. Gentry gave a copy of the video of the shooting to the taxidermist. Defs.’ Resp. Stmt. ¶ 3. 3 A video showing a stuffed Cubby in Gentry’s game room was aired on television (on the Outdoor Channel) three times during the week of July 24, 2006. Id. ¶ 5; PL’s Mot. for Summ. J., Att. 10 (Record of Information). 4

During the spring of 2004, FWS began an investigation concerning wildlife violations occurring on the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge near Sandstone, Minnesota. PL’s Stmt. ¶ 6. The initial investigation revealed equipment on the refuge suggesting that unlawful hunting was occurring, and the officers recognized some of that equipment as belonging to “a property owner in the immediate area who operated a wildlife photography business.” Id. The investigation continued over the following year, and Greenly provided conflicting accounts of his activities, including guiding black bear hunts. Id. ¶ 7. He later told investigators that the “large trophy caliber bear” that had been killed in 2004 was not a wild bear, as he had previously claimed, but was actually a bear raised tame in captivity. Id. During the investigation, FWS investigators spoke with the taxidermist who stuffed Cubby, who provided the investigators with a copy of the video depicting the hunt. Defs.’ Resp. Stmt. ¶ 8.

In 2006, attorneys from the U.S. Department of Justice charged Gentry and Greenly with felony violations of the Lacey Act, which prohibits, inter alia, the transport through interstate commerce of wildlife taken in violation of any state law, 16 U.S.C. § 3372. PL’s Stmt. ¶ 10. Both Greenly and Gentry entered plea agreements with the government. Greenly entered a plea of guilty to two felonies under the Lacey Act and was sentenced to three years’ probation, fined $1000, and ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3068. Defs.’ Stmt. ¶ 14. Gentry entered a plea of guilty to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and was sentenced to three months’ probation and fined $15,000. Id. In Gentry’s plea agreement, which was released by Defendants in response to Plaintiffs FOIA request, Gentry agreed that he had con *187 spired to kill a black bear in a fenced enclosure and to submit a false record to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources registering the animal as lawfully-taken, with the intent to transport the bear in interstate commerce. See Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J., Att. 1 (Plea Agreement) at 394-95.

B. FOIA Requests Submitted by Plaintiff

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Bluebook (online)
730 F. Supp. 2d 180, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 81885, 2010 WL 3191801, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/showing-animals-respect-kindness-v-united-states-department-of-interior-dcd-2010.