Ted Nugent: Bear killer pleads guilty

Ted Nugent has agreed to plead guilty to transporting a black bear he illegally killed in southeast Alaska. Nugent made the admission in signing a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that was filed Friday in US District Court.

Calls seeking comment from Nugent, his Anchorage attorney, Wayne Anthony Ross, and assistant US Attorney Jack Schmidt were not immediately returned.

The plea agreement says Nugent illegally shot and killed the bear in May 2009 on Sukkwan Island days after wounding a bear in a bow hunt, which counted toward a state seasonal limit of one bear.

According to the agreement, first reported by the Anchorage Daily News, the six-day hunt was filmed for his Outdoor Channel television show, Spirit of the Wild. In the hunt, Nugent used a number of bear-baiting sites on US Forest Service property, according to the agreement.

The document says Nugent knowingly possessed and transported the bear in misdemeanor violation of the federal Lacey Act.

Nugent, identified in the agreement as Theodore A. Nugent, agreed to pay a $10,000 fine, according to the agreement, which says he also agreed with a two-year probation, including a special condition that he not hunt or fish in Alaska or Forest Service properties for one year. He also agreed to create a public service announcement that would be broadcast on his show every second week for one year, the document states.