Wildlife

A lie this big

Dustin Solberg March 4, 1996 From the print edition
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  It's hard to believe, but the director of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department was caught fishing without a license. Last June a game warden stopped for a routine license check at a stream near Rawlins, Wyo., and found director John Talbott didn't have a $9 license with him. Talbott told the warden his license existed and that he'd mail in a copy. Talbott then went to the game and fish office and, after rifling through license receipts, found one that had been bought by a person whose weight matched his own, according to the Casper Star-Tribune. He signed a photocopy and turned it over to the game warden. A quick computer check revealed it as a forgery.


The 42-year-old Talbott was slow to admit his guilt. After the Carbon County Court fined him $400 and revoked his fishing privileges for a year, he told the Casper Star-Tribune, "I was at the time certainly convinced that, given my recollection of that, when I got a license, there was very little doubt that was probably my license."


Talbott, who'd served as director for a year, ended a 17-year career with the agency when he resigned Jan. 31 - after admitting he forged the license.


- Dustin Solberg


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