Former La Crosse Police Officer Sentenced for Wildlife Crimes
Madison, Wis. - John W. Vaudreuil, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Corrie Korn, 43, a former police officer with the La Crosse Police Department, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Madison for violating the Lacey Act, which protects certain waterfowl from illegal hunting.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen L. Crocker sentenced Korn in accordance with his plea agreement in which he agreed to pay a $5,000 fine and cease any hunting or guiding activities related to hunting for a period of two years. Magistrate Judge Crocker noted that Korn's voluntary resignation from the La Crosse Police Department showed that he fully accepted the serious nature of his conduct and thus did not merit a term of incarceration or term of probation. The Court also noted that Korn's sentence should demonstrate that no one is above the law.
At Korn's plea hearing, the government established that Korn and his co-defendant, Faling Yang, also a former La Crosse police officer, operated a commercial guiding company on the National Wildlife Refuge on the Mississippi River in 2009 and 2010. During the course of their investigation of the defendants, undercover agents working at the direction of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, hunted with the defendants who intentionally killed and transported ducks in violation of Wisconsin law and the Lacey Act on October 6, 2009.
On May 16, 2012, Yang was sentenced by Magistrate Judge Crocker to the same sentence as Korn, reflecting his equal role in this offense.
The charges against the defendant was the result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The prosecution of the case has been handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul W. Connell.
