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I talked with the USF&W prosecutor, someone who's been an Assistant US Attorney in my district for years. I've known him for a long time and while we have not always seen eye to eye, in my experience he's a straight shooter.
He calls me and we are talking. He asks if my truck is paid for and I say it is, so he says, "We can seize your truck then." I later tell him that after I hit it, I drove to a nearby weigh station to pull over and he says, "So you admit to transporting an illegally taken bald eagle. Please keep talking." I knew he was not being serious.
Ultimately he says he talked with the agent who had talked with the APD officer. He said that it was clearly an accident and they have some discretion about whether to seek a civil fine but they aren't going to do so in this case because I did what I was supposed to do - notify the law as soon as possible, not touch the carcass until the police were there, and then let APD document the case and seize the animal.
He didn't come right out and say it but I expect that if I had pulled over and chucked the carcass off the side of the road, I might well have received a fine even though the killing of the eagle was clearly not intentional. No, I don't think that he elected to proceed this route because he knew me. I know if he thought my conduct deserved a fine, he'd have sought a fine. He did tell me he'd never heard of someone hitting a bald eagle with their car either.
I guess the lesson is that when something really weird happens to you via circumstances beyond your control and its something that could potentially land you in hot water, you're best off reporting it ASAP. Probably a good idea to talk with an attorney ASAP as well. I'd expect friends or family to call me if it happened to them and I'd advise them to do just what I did. While the government had the legal authority to issue a fine, me doing what I did made them seeking a fine far less likely and it looks much better to any magistrate if the government had decided to seek a fine.
Unless, of course, you're smuggling exotic Marco Polo sheep sperm. In that case, I might be a bit more quiet about it and make sure I have a good lawyer on standby.
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