By Jefferson Robbins
World staff writer
SPOKANE — The Twisp-area ranch family accused of poaching endangered gray wolves from the Lookout Pack says evidence in the federal case was gathered without proper warrants.
William D. White, his son Tom D. White and daughter-in-law Erin White have all pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court to a total of 12 federal charges — including conspiracy to kill and unlawfully taking an endangered species, as well as smuggling and illegal import and export of wildlife. They were indicted June 7 after authorities said the family poached two wolves and attempted to ship parts of the animals out of the country.
The case began in December 2008, when the owner of a FedEx station in the Omak Walmart noticed a package that appeared to be leaking blood. The owner called Omak police, who then opened the box and found “a freshly killed wolf hide” inside it, according to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife investigation report.
In motions filed Nov. 25 and Dec. 2, attorneys for William and Erin White wrote that police opened the package without the necessary warrant, and subsequent search warrants on William White’s property did not specify evidence to be seized.
Erin White, 36, is accused of attempting to ship the bloody box. Her attorney Steven Frampton further argued there was no clear evidence she was the shipper of the package, since the contact information given with the shipment was falsified. The woman dropping off the package identified herself only as “Allison,” and addressed it to a recipient in Hardisty, Alberta, Canada.
“… Surveillance cameras showed a female mailing the suspect package and showed she was driving a red SUV,” Frampton wrote. “The footage of these cameras was of poor quality.”
A check with the Washington Department of Motor Vehicles found that Tom D. White, 36, owned a similar SUV, and compared a driver’s license photo of Erin White to images from the Walmart cameras. A request for a warrant search of Tom and Erin White’s residence on that basis was denied by a federal judge. The warrant was only granted after the FedEx store owner picked Erin White’s photo seven weeks later from a collage of six mugshots, Frampton wrote.
In William White’s case, federal authorities matched his address to telephone records of the Canadian recipient listed on the package. Emails that prosecutors attributed to White, cited in the indictment, boasted that he and others shot several wolves: two from a pack of nine gray wolves and one wolf from another group.
White’s attorney, Bevan Maxey, argued that the warrantless opening of the package provided a faulty basis for all subsequent searches of White’s residence and belongings.
The defense motions seek to suppress the FedEx package and its contents, which would effectively demolish the federal case. Hearings on the motions are scheduled for Feb. 9; the Whites are due to stand trial in Spokane Feb. 27.
The wolves were on the federal Endangered Species list at the time the poaching is believed to have taken place; they were delisted in the eastern Washington region earlier this year. It remains illegal under state law to kill wolves anywhere in Washington.
The Methow Valley Lookout Pack once comprised at least 10 wolves; by last June, wildlife biologists believed no more than two remained.