St. James Resident Sentenced for Selling and Possessing Migratory Birds

U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Polite announced that ROYLEY A. FOLSE, JR., age 69, a resident of St. James Parish, was sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to one count of selling migratory game birds, in violation of 16 U.S.C. §§703 and 707.

U.S. District Judge Stanwood Duval sentenced FOLSE to a probationary term of two years.

According to court documents, from June 2010 to December 2011, FOSLE illegally bartered and sold for cash four yellow-crowned night herons and sixty-two white ibis, which are migratory birds protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA).

U.S. Attorney Polite praised the work of the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Spiro G. Latsis was in charge of the prosecution.