ABBOTSFORD, B.C. — Anaheim Ducks defenceman Clayton Stoner was banned from hunting for three years and fined $10,000 for killing a grizzly bear on British Columbia's central coast.
Stoner acknowledged through his lawyer Wednesday that he had breached the provincial Wildlife Act during the hunt in May 2013. Lawyer Marvin Stern said his client mistakenly believed he was qualified to participate as a resident.
Stoner wasn't in the Abbotsford court, and Stern pleaded guilty on his behalf to hunting without a license.
Provincial court Judge Brent Hoy accepted that Stoner thought he was qualified as a resident, but the law had still been breached.
"If one hunts, then one must do so responsibility," he said.
The government dropped four other charges against Stoner, including knowingly making a false statement to obtain a hunting license, hunting out of season and unlawfully possessing dead wildlife.
Stoner, who's originally from Port McNeill on Vancouver Island, owns a home in Langford, B.C. To obtain a commercial trophy license, a hunter must reside in B.C. for at least half of each of six months in the previous year.
The case first gained media attention when photos were published of Stoner holding up a bear's severed head. First Nations and environmentalists claimed the animal was Cheeky, a star tourist attraction in B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest.
After he was charged, Stoner requested a DNA test on the bear. The B.C. Conservation Officer Service conducted the tests and determined the animal was 18 years old, not the 5-year-old Cheeky, Stern told the court.
Outside the court, representatives of the area First Nations and a conservation group maintained that the deceased bear was Cheeky. They said they may have been mistaken on the bear's age, noting guardians had witnessed Stoner interact with Cheeky within hours before the kill.
The government didn't take a position on the identity of the bear.
Government lawyer Jim Cryder said there's a strict definition of resident under the act.
"For an NHL player ... they're going to be out of the province for at least seven months," Cryder told the court. "He hasn't, in fact, qualified as a resident."
