Camera convicted him but raised battle over privacy | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com: "Farmers beware: Big Brother may be watching. Eastern Shore soybean farmer Steve Van- Kesteren learned that the hard way when he was charged with taking two red-tailed hawks, a violation of the federal Migratory Bird Act. The evidence against him was a video recording showing him dispatching the birds with an ax. Game wardens had put a hidden camera in a tree, pointed at VanKesteren's soybean fields, after receiving a complaint about protected birds getting caught in predator traps. The wardens had to walk or drive off a road, past a hedgerow, and travel about a quarter mile through one field and past a second hedgerow. VanKesteren said it appears they cut a swath through some brush to get to the tree."
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This the "open fields" doctrine. It was developed by the US Supreme Court. They decided there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in open fields, so government officials can trespass there and gather evidence like this, and it is not a Fourth Amendment violation.
But it really sticks in the craw of anybody who (still) believes in individual liberty and the rights of property owners, doesn't it?
He killed the birds because they were caught in traps he had set for foxes. Apparently he was supposed to go get a permit to kill them, but didn't bother.
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