Three men were being held in the Hall County Jail at mid-afternoon Wednesday on bonds totaling $188,200 following their arrests on 138 charges growing out of illegal hunting. The charges were filed by the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
A spokeswoman for the Hall County Sheriff’s Office (HCSO) says sheriff’s deputies arrested two of the suspects and the third turned himself in at the sheriff’s office.
“One of our patrol deputies arrested (Herson Armando) Cruz-Diaz on the DNR warrants yesterday at approximately 11 a.m. in the 1000 block of Aviation Boulevard,” B.J. Williams wrote in an email Wednesday morning. “One of our Warrant Service Unit deputies arrested (Bryan Josue) Ortiz Rosales on the DNR warrants yesterday at roughly 6 p.m. in the 4600 block of Friendship Road.”
Williams said the third suspect, Julio Adalberto Garay, 50, turned himself in at the sheriff’s office Wednesday afternoon. He’s facing ten charges, and his bond has been set at $17,400. Cruze-Diaz, 31, is being held on 49 charges and his bond is $63,700. Ortiz Rosales, 23, is looking at 79 charges and bonds totaling $107,100.
The charges include possession of wildlife without a permit or license, hunting from a vehicle, hunting from a public road, hunting deer at night, misuse of a firearm or archery tackle while hunting, possession of tools for the commission of a crime, and reckless conduct.
Asked for more information about the case, Sgt. Dan Shay of the DNR law enforcement office in Gainesville said it was not available at this time. “The requested report has not been completed by the officer or approved by a supervisor,” Sgt. Shay said.