Supreme Court rejects Utah poaching case

The nation's highest court will not hear the appeal of a Utah man who claims his conviction on a state poaching charge should be overturned because his "treaty rights" allow him to hunt and fish without a license.

Rickie L. Reber, 53, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in August to have his case heard after the Utah Supreme Court reinstated his 2004 conviction for poaching a trophy deer with his teenage son in Uintah County. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition.

"It's not a judgment on the merits (of the case). They simply have too many cases," said Reber's attorney, Mike Humiston.

In a unanimous decision in April, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that Reber had no tribal hunting or fishing rights, despite his assertion of membership in the Uintah Tribe, a tribe that is not federally recognized. Reber's parents were among the 490 mixed-blood Uintah Band members of the Ute Indian Tribe whose tribal memberships were terminated in 1956. He was a child at the time.

Humiston has argued that terminating tribal membership only cuts off federal benefits for individuals, it doesn't mean the tribe ceases to exist.

"The tribe still remains the tribe. Hunting and treaty rights are not terminated," he told a Deseret Morning News reporter in August. "That is well-written federal law. They retain their treaty rights."

State and local officials expressed satisfaction with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision not to hear Reber's appeal. The case — through a 2006 Utah Court of Appeals reversal of Reber's conviction — had jeopardized a well-established jurisdictional agreement between the state and the Ute Indian Tribe concerning law enforcement on 2 million acres of prime hunting and fishing land in the Uinta Basin.

The Utah Supreme Court's decision overturned the lower court's ruling, reinstating Reber's conviction and reaffirming the agreement between the state and the tribe.

"It's nice to have closure on the issues. It allows us to go on with the appropriate law enforcement that the state and county are required to accomplish," said Deputy Uintah County Attorney Ed Peterson, concerning the U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear the case. Peterson prosecuted Reber on the poaching charge.

Humiston said he will continue to challenge the state on legal issues involving Uintah Tribe members. "The Utah Supreme Court ruling remains erroneous, but it will have to be addressed through a different case," he said.

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Contributing: Lezlee Whiting

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E-mail: geoff@ubstandard.com