Cable TV hunting show hosts pleads guilty in poaching case

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The host of a cable TV hunting show has pleaded guilty as part of an investigation into poaching on a remote national preserve in Alaska.

The terms of a plea deal signed by Clark W. Dixon on Monday call for an 18-month prison sentence, a $75,000 fine and forfeiture of trophies and weapons that the U.S. attorney's office says were used in the illegal taking of game.

The charges involve activities between 2008 and 2013 at Noatak National Preserve in northwest Alaska. After the charges were announced in September, the Sportsman Channel said it had suspended Dixon's show, "The Syndicate."

Sentencing was set for February. Dixon is from Mississippi.

The U.S. Attorney's office said in a release that four others charged in the case, including Dixon's father, have pleaded guilty and been sentenced. Dixon is the only one among those facing a prison sentence.

Dixon was accused of participating in the illegal take of a brown bear and with conducting an illegal hunting operation.

"We've reached an agreement where my client has accepted responsibility and is agreeing to move on," Dixon's attorney, Brent Cole, said Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Skrocki said by email that the investigation "uncovered an extensive and illegal outfitting enterprise which was operating undetected for years in the furthest reaches of Alaska."

Skrocki said many of the hunts were selectively edited to appear legal for Dixon's TV show.

The National Park Service issued citations to two production companies and another individual for filming on the preserve without a permit, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Several cases connected to the investigation are still pending in court.