If you can recall, a wild video went viral last October of Eddy County, North Dakota landowner Jeffrey Erman going absolutely berserk on some duck hunters, as he claimed that they were hunting on his bean field.
He was known for this wild statement in particular:
“You gotta stay a foot off (the section line). I was gonna hunt here this morning, but I heard you guys were coming. I own the f*cking land.”
He went on to say:
“Three hundred dollars and you can shoot all you want. Cash money right now on the barrel head and I’ll walk away and call the (game warden) and tell him not to come.”
He claimed that they had ruined his hunting plans for that morning.
Now, according to the New Rockford Transcript, Erman faces a number of charges from the incident, including trading in special influence, a Class A misdemeanor, along with disorderly conduct and interference with rights of hunters, both Class B misdemeanors, and took a plea agreement.
One of the hunters, Dustin Wolf of West Fargo, also was charged with criminal trespass, a Class B misdemeanor.
Wolf initially pled not guilty, but has since reached a plea agreement and switched to guilty.
According to the criminal complaint, Wolf had received permission to hunt on the land from an authorized agent for the landowner, but was told not to hunt near the property line unless given permission by Erman.
In the plea agreement, Wolf says:
“I am pleading guilty because on or about October 21, 2022… I was hunting on land on which I had permission to hunt. I had been provided notice to avoid hunting on a specific patch of land within that larger piece of land.
Before placing my blind, I had not determined with certainty that I was not on that patch of land; It turned out that I was on that patch of land.”
He has now been charged $250 in various fees and fines, and according to his plea agreement, must also pay $200 to the North Dakota Game & Fish Report All Poachers Program.
The agreement also states that after 180 days:
“The guilty plea in this case will be withdrawn, the guilty verdict will be set aside, the case will be dismissed, and the file will be sealed by the court.”
On top of that, Erman has taken a plea agreement as well, and will plead guilty to disorderly conduct-obscenity, and interference with the rights of hunters and trappers, which are both class B misdemeanors.
You can check out the full video of the verbal altercation here:
