Decatur County men charged with illegally taking dozens of deer

Five Decatur County men face 49 charges of illegally taking deer and could have to pay damages of nearly 150-thousand dollars. Iowa Department of Natural Resources conservation officer Craig Roberg says charges were filed after a four-month investigation.He says they seized 52 buck deer and the ones they could prove were taken illegally were the ones that led to charges. Roberg says the men would kill the deer and keep only the head. He says the majority of the time the rest of the deer was left in the field to rot, and on a rare occassion, they took some of the meat. Roberg says this was not hunting — it was a case of a killing spree — with one of these men killing as many as 14 bucks this fall alone. He says he thinks for some reason on other the men like to kill buck deer and take their antlers. “It just was an ego thing or a fetish, I can’t tell you that.”The charges were filed against 27-year-old Justin Mason of rural Leon; 32-year-old Ron Carney of Garden Grove; 24-year-old Jake Mason, 46-year-old Mike Mason and 48-year-old Steve Powell, all of Woodland. Carney has pleaded guilty to taking a deer with a rifle and wanton waste of deer. The others have pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges.