A former Discovery Channel star and southwest Michigan resident is back in court.
Scott Kevin Meisterheim, 55, of Kalamazoo, faced a pretrial in Kalamazoo County last week on 10 counts of illegal deer hunting, according to a release from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
A former star of Discovery’s “Bering Sea Gold,” Meisterheim is also accused of hunting on several properties where he did not have permission, including in Kalamazoo and Van Buren counties. He was arraigned ion Jan. 17 for the following charges:
- Taking white-tailed deer outside of lawful hunting hours (one count).
- Hunting white-tailed deer with no license (two counts).
- Uses the deer hunting licenses of another (two counts).
- Taking an overlimit of antlered white-tailed deer (two counts).
- Transporting/possessing untagged antlered white-tailed deer (three counts).
“Sure, I love to kill deer,” said Meisterheim, in an interview with DNR Conservation Officer James Nason. “If I could kill more I would, to be honest with you.”
Nason, who works in Kalamazoo County, investigated a series of tips by interviewing several witnesses regarding Meisterheim’s illegal hunting activity from October to December 2021. He interviewed Meisterheim at the Kalamazoo County Jail, where Meisterheim was lodged at the time for domestic abuse.
The DNR said Meisterheim, who was hunting without a hunting license, during all hours of the day and while using illegal bait, also obtained other people’s deer tags to cover his illegal deer, if he even tagged them at all.
Meisterheim told Nason that he is not the most ethical hunter.
“I don’t care,” he said. “I am addicted to the venison.”
The DNR requested additional charges for illegal bait, failing to immediately validate/attach kill tags and using another’s (hunting) license.
Evidence collected during the investigation revealed that Meisterheim took at least 11 deer from Oct. 1-Dec. 24, 2021, including three deer Oct. 1, and that he believed he was “tagged out” the first week of archery season. Within three days, Meisterheim let two deer spoil; those were rejected by the processor due to their condition.
“This is an excellent investigation of a poacher who shows no respect for the resource or the ethics of fair chase,” said Chief Dave Shaw, DNR Law Enforcement Division. “Violations of this type deprive law-abiding people of their opportunity to have access to and enjoy a public trust natural resource, in this case white-tailed deer.”
Meisterheim is currently serving 18 months’ probation for aggravated domestic assault in and is due back in court on the DNR charges in February.
(Photo courtesy Michigan DNR)
