Plea hearing scheduled for man accused of killing bald eagle near Hickory
File photo
The North Strabane man accused of shooting and killing a bald eagle with a pellet gun near Hickory earlier this year appears to be negotiating a plea deal with federal prosecutors in order to resolve the case.
Online court records show that Rodney Thomas is expected to appear for a combined plea hearing and subsequent sentencing before U.S. Judge Christy Criswell Wiegand at 11 a.m. Feb. 5 in the federal courthouse in Pittsburgh.
Thomas, 51, was indicted over the summer on one federal charge of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act in connection with the May 12 shooting of the eagle in Mt. Pleasant Township.
Federal investigators said Thomas used an air rifle to shoot the mature eagle, which was found dead in a field near Waterdam Road a couple miles north of Hickory. Mt. Pleasant Township police and the Pennsylvania Game Commission initiated the investigation and said a person turned himself in to authorities shortly after a photo was released showing an SUV leaving the area at the time of the killing. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took over the investigation and a federal grand jury indicted Thomas on the one misdemeanor count on July 18.
Thomas had been scheduled for a status conference today, but it was canceled in lieu of the combined plea and sentencing hearing now scheduled for early February.
While Thomas has previously been scheduled several times for change of plea hearings, this upcoming proceeding appears to be different and more likely to happen because it is combined with the sentencing. Online federal court documents indicated Thomas “requests to be sentenced without the benefit of a presentence report and requests a combined change of plea and sentencing hearing.”
It’s not known what plea deal federal prosecutors and Sarah Levin, the federal public defender representing Thomas, are negotiating or why both sides agreed to waive a pre-sentencing investigation. Levin was not available for comment Thursday.
Both sides have until Jan. 16 to file a joint stipulation for the “sentencing guideline calculations and restitution obligations,” according to the court documents. If the stipulation is not filed by that date, the hearing would proceed only as a change of plea hearing, according to the docket.
If convicted at trial, Thomas could have faced up to one year in prison and a $5,000 fine.
In 2007, bald eagles were removed from the federal Endangered Species Act, which celebrated its 50th anniversary Thursday. However, the birds are still protected through three other federal acts, which include the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Lacey Act, according to both the state Game Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.