Mama's don't let your babies grow up to be......HUNTERS!

So I am sure you now all know that you may shortly be seeing my husband on “America’s Most Wanted”. Haha, not really but in case you didn’t get that joke, let me explain. Last October (2004) Justin’s dad treated him to a $3000 hunting trip up in Wisconsin. It was his graduation present. They were both so excited and counted down the days. They went online and bought their hunting licenses, got some new gear, and even went as far as to check to make sure the outfitter they scheduled their hunt with was licensed in the state of Wisconsin. Everything looked great and there were even a few of the guys at church who decided they wanted in on the hunt too. So they all packed up and left, had a great week at the camp, no one shot anything except Justin! He was lucky enough to shoot a buck. Adam (the guide they hired) took the deer to get it processed, tagged, and shipped back to florida for Justin. The hunt was finally over and Justin and his dad came home. A few months later a couple of Federal Agents appeared out of nowhere to question everyone about their hunting trip. Justin, his dad, and all the guys from church were more than cooperative with these agents. All the guys were continually told that they had done nothing wrong, that they were investigating Adam and Blue River Outfitters. Everyone was shocked that anything was going on and did any and everything they could to help the agents. They voluntarily gave them their bows and guns, their deer mounts, video footage, etc. Thinking they were helping. So fast forward to Monday night. It was 11:00 and Justin and I are laying in bed, I am sleeping and he is watching a re-run of the 6:00 news. He sees a segment about illegal deer hunting in Wisconsin, he still hasn’t heard anything about what happened to the outfitters and thinks this story might be about them so he turns it up. Only to find that at the end of the segment the anchor lady proclaims, “46 people have been charged in this case, here is a list of names and where they are from”…………Sure enough down towards the bottom of that list was “Justin Tyner, Pace Florida”………”What the heck??” Justin was so shocked, oh my gosh Christi, my name is on there. What are they charging me with, what did I do?? Of course our phone rang off the hook that night and all the next morning because it was also printed in the paper!!! First of all let me tell you that it is three days later and my husband, nor any of the others, have not been informed of any charges. For the news channels and papers to run that story is ludacris and false! Until they serve him with some charge papers, this is defamation of character. People win big money in law suits over that stuff, especially Pastors (one of the guys on the list). I mean seriously, the Sheriff was on that list, do you think that if the other guys knew something was going on, they would have invited the Sheriff??? Honestly! So, now the question is, if they are charged (which they aren’t yet) then how could this stand up in court. We did some research (because no one has informed us) on what Justin is apparently charged with. A governmental website in Wisconsin says hunting without a license (if you refer to the first paragraph, they bought licenses online with credit cards…….there is proof) this one WILL be thrown out. And while I am on the topic, all of the guys were charged with this hunting without a license. Is the state of Wisconsin so frivolous to file charges on something that can be so easily proven without doing it’s research?? There are records people. I guess they figured, we’ll just charge em with whatever and then if they aren’t guilty then we’ll drop it………what ever happened to “innocent until proven guilty” not “guilty until proven innocent”!! That is politics if I have ever seen it……clean up your government/DNR Wisconsin! Don’t defame my good, honorable husband’s character to prove some invalid point. The second charge they apparently charged Justin with is illegal tagging of his deer. Again referring to the events listed above, well, he didn’t tag the deer at all, the guide took the deer right after he killed it, to go get it tagged and processed and what not. I see no way that they can charge him for someone else’s mistakes, but either way Justin said he is not that worried because he did nothing wrong and eventually the truth will come out. The whole reason you pay thousands of dollars to hire a professional guide in a foreign state is to relax and rely on his professional service. He had a valid business license with Wisconsin so I think THEY are to blame. Justin and the others ensured they were going out with a licensed outfitter whom, according to Wisconsin, was worthy of their trust. I mean can we do a background check on every store we buy a pair of jeans from to make sure they are not making their jeans in child labor sweat shops??? NO, we have to trust professionals to do the service they advertise, especially if they are licensed! If you buy a car from a dealer and it ends up being a stolen car……are you liable, or the dealer??? EXACTLY!! I keep hearing all these stupid people saying “they should be held accountable for their crimes”, or “ignorance is no excuse” but what everyone doesn’t understand is that in most of the cases, there were no crimes even committed, and there is no way we can be knowledgable in all areas of life……”ignorance is no excuse” until someone dups you and then all of a sudden it is a pretty valid excuse. Stop throwing your stones for a minute and put yourself in the innocent bystanders’ shoes who are going through this right now. But the point is, Justin, McNesby, Whitehead, Godfrey…………. they all did nothing wrong, and I am willing to say that the rest are just as innocent! These guys are the victims, they are out the $3000 plus that they paid for the trip, the deer and mounting costs, bows and guns, and now face fines and punishments. Plus, no one has been formally notified of any charges at all……..but the news and the newspaper sure do make it sound that way. Anyway, we appreciate your prayers and personally think this will all be dropped due to retardedness! God is in control and we will live above reproach!