Badges, Bears, and Eagles

by Steven T. Callan

  On December 11, 1997, Ross Hamilton received a call from Jason Lee. Lee was going back to Los Angeles in a few days and needed gallbladders badly. Of particular interest to Lee was the very large gallbladder that Ross had told him about. Ross said he would call his friend and see if he could set something up. Arrangements were made and Ross called Lee back on December 13. Warden Szody and I were present when Hamilton recorded the phone conversation.

  “My friend’s dogs are better than Buck and Ricky’s,” said Ross. “He might be willing to work for you next season.” Szody and I knew there was no love lost between Lee and those two mercenaries, Millsap and Nettles. We decided to sweeten the pot with a possible alternative, although we planned to have Lee in jail long before the next season.

  “My friend wants to know how much you’re willing to pay for each bear and how much you paid Buck and Ricky this season. He says if you make him a good offer, he’ll get you more than they did,” said Ross. That sounded pretty appealing to Lee. As he contemplated the possibility of hiring new help, Hamilton asked another question:

  “How many bears did Buck Millsap get you this year?”

  “Well,” replied Lee, “Buck got me twenty-eight or twenty-nine bears this year, but last year he got about fifty-eight. And Ricky probably got me eighteen or nineteen. I think I brought up about thirty clients from LA.”

  As Dave and I listened to the conversation, we were appalled by Lee’s arrogance and total disregard for California’s hunting regulations. Lee and his outlaw accomplices would kill the last bear in California if there was a dollar to be made.

  “And you paid Buck and Ricky five hundred bucks for each bear they treed?”

  “Yeah, but the deal for everyone else around here is three hundred.”

  “Buck Millsap must be rolling in money.”

  “Actually it was not a very good year. Very bad for everybody.”

  Ross tried to figure out, in his head, how much money Millsap had made from the bears he had treed for Lee. Then Lee volunteered the information: over ten thousand dollars.

  “Ten thousand dollars?” blurted Ross.

  “That not much money,” Lee assured him.

  Warden Szody and I felt that we had plenty of evidence to use against Jason Lee. We had already sold gallbladders to him on two separate occasions—all felonies—and there were numerous misdemeanor violations. Lee was persistent, however, about getting his hands on that extra large gallbladder Ross Hamilton had told him about. We advised Ross to agree to a final sale, which was arranged for December 14, 1997.

  On the evening of December 14, 1997, Warden Szody and I were sitting in an unmarked vehicle at the south end of the Anderson Factory Outlet Stores parking lot. A hundred yards north of us, Ross Hamilton was meeting for the last time with Jason Lee.

  “How many are there?” inquired Lee, as he climbed into Hamilton’s pickup.

  “I brought seven,” replied Hamilton.

  “These are all he has, right?” Lee asked.

  “My friend does have more.”

  “What size?” continued Lee, licking his lips.

  “I’m not sure,” answered Ross. “I haven’t seen them.”

  Jason Lee appeared desperate to get his hands on as many bear galls as he could before going back to Los Angeles. No matter how many Ross Hamilton came up with, Lee seemed to always want more. I wondered just how much money Lee was making off each gall. The thought occurred to me that Lee might have been transporting the gallbladders back to Korea.

  “Can I get those when I come back?” Lee asked.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” replied Ross.

  “Two of the galls are spoiled so I will give you five hundred for the other five,” said Lee.

  Ross agreed, with Lee paying him five hundred dollars for the gallbladders and the usual one hundred dollars for making the deal. Lee started to walk away, but then he came back to admonish Ross not to talk to anyone about their transaction. He appeared especially concerned about being caught. Then he revealed why. Wiping the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand, Lee said in a low voice, “Stan Harder got busted by Fish and Game.”

  Warden Szody and I had recently secured a federal arrest warrant for Stanley Louis Harder. Harder was one of the outlaws who shot the mountain lion early in the investigation (December 1995), on National Forest land. This violation was witnessed by undercover Warden Al McDermott. Harder would be the first of many to be arrested, as we began to tighten the noose. Lee was actually trembling as he spoke to Hamilton about Harder’s arrest. He alerted Ross to possible undercover officers. “And if they catch you they bust you,” warned Lee. “Even if something go wrong, we not know each other.”

  Szody and I watched Ross Hamilton’s pickup leave the parking lot. A few minutes later, Jason Lee drove away in the opposite direction. We waited five extra minutes before leaving and meeting Hamilton at a designated location.

  Ross handed me the recording equipment, the ice chest that we had provided and the six hundred dollars that Jason Lee paid him—all in one hundred dollar bills. Dave and I thanked Ross for the outstanding job he had done and told him that he had probably conducted his last transaction. After three years of evidence gathering, documentation and remarkable undercover work, it was time to write search warrants, file criminal complaints and begin making arrests.

  IX

  Conducting a three-year undercover investigation was a monumental task, with a long list of problems. As many as nine undercover agents and civilian operatives were involved. In an effort to maintain the integrity of the investigation, none of the agents or operatives knew the identities of all the others involved. There were statute of limitation challenges with the earlier misdemeanors: criminal complaints had to be filed within one year of the crimes being committed. An early arrest would have exposed operatives and eliminated any possibility of success, so affidavits were filed with the court, sealing complaints and arrest reports until the investigation was completed. All the bear gallbladder-related charges were felonies and did not present that problem.

  A year or two into the investigation, the California District Attorneys Association initiated a funded program providing environmental circuit prosecutors to rural counties. Two circuit prosecutors, Jennifer Scott and Larry Allen, worked out of an office in Redding. They collaborated with Szody and me throughout much of the investigation and all of the prosecution process. Much of our success can be attributed to Scott and Allen’s extensive prosecutorial skills and total dedication to the project.

  On January 23, 1998, I filed a criminal complaint in Shasta County Superior Court against Chung-Hee (Jason) Lee. The complaint charged Lee with sixteen felony counts of buying bear gallbladders (4758 California Fish and Game Code) and fourteen misdemeanor counts, including: taking an over-limit of bears, taking a cub bear, bartering for bears, possession of illegally taken bears (mother bear with cub) and numerous tag violations.

  Immediately after filing the criminal complaint, I wrote three search warrant affidavits and secured search warrants for Lee’s mountain home, his office in Los Angeles and his residence in Los Angeles. On January 28, all three search warrants were served simultaneously. Most of the papers found at Lee’s office and LA apartment were written or printed in Korean. He had several different business cards, alternately identifying him as a wildlife biologist, columnist producer, certified firearms instructor, personal protection instructor and licensed guide. Lee even used the Department of Fish and Game logo on one of his business cards. Another card indicated that he was into “wildlife research.” I wondered if Lee had gotten that idea from the Japanese whaling industry, which claims to kill whales in the name of research. Maybe Lee was trying to justify the killing of bears and other wildlife for the same purpose. A box of ziplock baggies was found at Lee’s mountain house. That would not have been unusual, except for a length of green string inside each one—obviously in preparation for the many bear gallbladders that Lee planned to acquire.
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br />   As we learned more about Jason Lee, Szody and I started to wonder if he might have been living a double life—one as a bear guide in California and the other as a well-to-do entrepreneur in South Korea. We could only imagine how much money Lee might have received for bear gallbladders in Asian markets.

  A felony arrest warrant was issued for Jason Lee, in the amount of $750,000. Szody and I arrested Lee as he walked out of an Anderson coffee shop on January 28, 1998. He had a frightened, almost petrified look on his face when we applied the handcuffs, but didn’t say a word. Lee was booked into Shasta County Jail. Szody and I later learned that Lee had been in Anderson to make yet another gallbladder transaction with Jimmy Westerby.

  On April 7, 1998, I testified before the Shasta County Grand Jury, led by Environmental Prosecutor Jennifer Scott. A twenty-nine count indictment was issued. After several months of court proceedings, a negotiated plea was agreed to on September 28, 1998. Lee pled guilty to three felony counts of purchasing bear gallbladders. He was sentenced to three years in state prison, suspended; five years formal probation (with strict conditions), one year to be served in the Shasta County Jail and ordered to pay a fine totaling twenty thousand dollars. As a convicted felon, he would never again be able to possess a firearm in California. Needless to say, his days as a guide and hunter education instructor were over.

  Felony arrest warrants were issued for Elvin “Buck” Millsap and Henry Jessup in the amount of $100,000 each. Jessup was arrested and booked into Shasta County Jail on January 28, 1998. Millsap turned himself in shortly after that. On April 6, 1998, a meeting was held at the office of the Environmental Circuit Prosecutors in Redding. Jessup and his attorney were present, along with circuit prosecutor Larry Allen, Warden Dave Szody and me. Jessup’s attorney asked if I had any specific questions for Henry Jessup.

  “Yes, I do,” I replied. “On December 4, 2006, you sold thirteen bear gallbladders to Special Agent Don Hoang. You left for a time and returned with the gallbladders. We would like to know who you got those gallbladders from.”

  “Who I got ’em from?” repeated Jessup. “I got ’em from Buck Millsap.”

  “Out of the money that Agent Hoang paid you, how much of it went to Buck Millsap?” I asked.

  “All of it,” replied Jessup.

  I reminded Jessup that Agent Hoang had paid him a total of $3,150. Jessup said he put the money in a bag or an envelope, then took it over to Millsap’s house and gave it to him.

  “How long after Agent Hoang paid you, did you go over and pay Millsap?” I asked.

  “The same day,” replied Jessup.

  I asked Henry Jessup if he would be willing to testify to what he had just told us in court. He said he would. Jessup’s attorney stated that she had already explained to Jessup that he would likely be asked to testify. I advised Jessup and his attorney that we could make no promises. Henry Jessup later testified in court against Buck Millsap.

  Buck Millsap’s day in court was a very long time coming. He was charged with fifty-four counts of serious Fish and Game violations. Twenty-five of those counts were felonies involving the sale or purchase of bear gallbladders. The court found him guilty, on July 20, 1998, and sentenced him to six months in Shasta County Jail. Millsap was ordered to pay a fine of $54,000 and was placed on formal probation for five years, with the following restrictive conditions: shall not hunt or be in the field with anyone who is hunting; shall not possess any wildlife or parts thereof; shall not run hound dogs; shall submit to warrantless search of his person, property or vehicle at any time, by any peace officer and shall not possess a firearm or archery equipment.

  Henry Jessup was charged with fourteen felony counts of selling bear gallbladders and one felony count of conspiracy. He pled guilty to selling bear gallbladders and was sentenced on September 8, 1998. Jessup’s sentence included ninety days in the Shasta County Jail, a fine of $9,990 and restitution to the California Department of Fish and Game in the amount of $5,100. He was also placed on five years formal (felony) probation, with the same strict conditions that Millsap received.

  James “Jimmy” Westerby was charged with four felony counts of selling bear gallbladders, unlawful take of a protected species (fisher) and one felony count of criminal conspiracy. Szody and I arrested Westerby on the streets of Anderson, minutes after what was believed to be his last gallbladder transaction with Jason Lee. Westerby pled guilty to selling bear gallbladders and taking a protected species. He was ordered to serve one hundred and twenty days in the Shasta County Jail and pay a fine and restitution totaling over $10,000. Westerby was also placed on five years formal (felony) probation, under the same strict conditions that Millsap and Jessup received. As a convicted felon, he could no longer legally possess a firearm in California.

  Remember when Stan Harder and Larry Cogle shot and wounded that mountain lion back in 1995? They were each charged for that crime in federal court. Cogle was tried and convicted on June 30, 1998. Recommendations from federal probation included a five thousand dollar fine, forty-five days in jail and three years supervised probation, including banishment from all federal lands. Harder received a similar sentence and was also charged in the case involving Bruce and Darrel Vanosek.

  Without sufficient evidence that Ricky Nettles shot the bear in the culvert, Richard DeWayne Nettles was charged with license fraud and probation violations. Although his fine was minimal, Nettles was placed on probation for three years, during which time he could not hunt or be in the field with anyone else who was hunting. We served a search warrant at Nettles’s residence, but found no gallbladders. Both Nettles and Millsap were suspected of keeping the gallbladders they had collected at locations other than their respective residences.

  Bruce and Darrel Vanosek were found guilty and convicted of unlawful possession of an illegally taken bear on April 24, 1998. Although Warden McDermott believed the bear that Darrel Vanosek shot was a cub (less than fifty pounds) he could not have seized the bear and proved that charge without blowing his cover. Both Vanoseks were instead charged for unlawful possession of the same bear, as a result of tag (license) fraud. They were each fined a total of $640 and placed on three year’s probation—they could not hunt or be in the field with anyone who was hunting.

  Over fifty felonies and one hundred misdemeanor charges resulted from this three-year undercover investigation. Twenty defendants were brought to justice. Over $110,000 in fines and restitution were levied and over two years of jail time was ordered by the court. Buck Millsap’s $54,000 fine was the largest game-related fine in California history. Four of the worst wildlife violators in California at the time were convicted of felonies and will never again be able to legally carry firearms in California.

  For three decades, Dave Szody and I followed George Werden’s advice. We played the “game” to the very best of our abilities. We studied our opponents and the rules they were required to play by—always trying to figure out their next moves before they made them. In the end, we left California’s precious natural resources a little better off than they would have been had we never pinned on those badges. Nobody ever said working couldn’t be fun.

  We had a ball.

  * * * * *

  Steven Callan was born in San Diego, California, where he spent his early childhood. It was there that he first developed his love of nature, spending much of his spare time exploring the undeveloped canyons behind his house and learning to skin-dive in the nearby ocean. In 1960, Callan’s family moved to the small Northern California farm town of Orland. Steve spent his high school years playing baseball, basketball, hunting and fishing. With an insatiable interest in wildlife, particularly waterfowl, he never missed an opportunity to ride along on patrol with his father, a California Fish and Game warden.

  Callan graduated from California State University, Chico, in 1970 and continued with graduate work at California State University, Sacramento. While studying at Sacramento State, he worked as a paid intern for the Sacramento County Board of Supervi
sors—using this golden opportunity to lobby for protected wildlife corridors in the county’s general plan.

  Hired by the California Department of Fish and Game in 1974, Warden Steve Callan’s first assignment was the Earp Patrol District on the Colorado River. He was promoted to patrol lieutenant in January of 1978, leaving the desert and moving to the metropolitan area of Riverside/San Bernardino. While stationed in Riverside, Callan organized and led a successful effort to ban the sale of native reptiles in California. He also organized and led a successful campaign to stop a planned recreational development at Lake Mathews—establishing the lake and its surrounding wildlands as an ecological reserve for thousands of waterfowl and Southern California’s largest population of wintering bald eagles.

  Transferring north to Shasta County in 1981, Lieutenant Callan spent the remainder of his thirty-year enforcement career in Redding. While supervising the warden force in Shasta County, Callan created and coordinated the Streamside Corridor Protection Plan—working with city and county planners to establish development-free setbacks along the Sacramento River and its Redding area tributaries.

  In 1995, Lieutenant Steve Callan and Warden Dave Szody conducted a three-year undercover investigation into the unlawful killing of California black bears for their gallbladders, possibly the most successful wildlife related criminal investigation in California history. Callan and Szody received the distinguished Frank James Memorial Award for their accomplishment.

  Steve and his wife, Kathleen, a retired science teacher, are passionate about the environment. They are longtime members of no fewer than a dozen environmental organizations and actively promote environmental causes. They are avid bird watchers, kayakers and scuba divers. Steve is a wildlife artist, using photographs he takes while scuba diving for inspiration. Callan has played competitive softball throughout the United States since his college days and in 2004 was inducted into the National Senior Softball Hall of Fame.