August 16, 2006

'Cubby' killed, singer charged
Country star allegedly shot captive bear in hunting scam

BY TAD VEZNER
Pioneer Press

Between singing and strumming his guitar, country vocalist Troy Lee Gentry has billed himself as a hunting enthusiast and avid archer.

But the U.S. government believes it's partly a show, according to court documents released Tuesday in Minnesota.

Gentry appeared Tuesday in federal court in connection with the killing of a tame black bear that federal officials say he bought, shot in an enclosed pen with a bow and arrow, and then tagged as if it had been killed in the wild.

Gentry, 39, of Franklin, Tenn., and Lee Marvin Greenly, 46, owner of a Sandstone, Minn., wildlife refuge, made their initial appearances Tuesday before a federal judge in Duluth, Minn. The appearance was in connection with a sealed indictment returned by a federal grand jury last month in Minneapolis.

Gentry could not be reached for comment through his Nashville, Tenn.-based agent, Steve Dahl, who did not return a phone call Tuesday.

The government alleged that Gentry and Greenly tagged a captive-raised bear named "Cubby," killed on Greenly's property in October 2004, with a Minnesota hunting license and registered the animal with the state Department of Natural Resources as if it had been killed from the wild population. The false tagging would be a violation of the federal Lacey Act.
Gentry allegedly bought the bear from Greenly for about $4,650. The bear's death was videotaped, and the tape later edited so Gentry appeared to shoot the bear with a bow and arrow in a "fair chase"-hunting situation. The pair then shipped the bear's hide to a Kentucky taxidermist, the indictment said.

Both Gentry and Greenly face a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a $20,000 fine if convicted. The two were booked by U.S. marshals and released on a signature bond Tuesday.

Gentry is half of the hit Kentucky duo Montgomery Gentry , which won the Country Music Association's title for Vocal Duo of the Year in 2000. Gentry, along with co-singer Gerald "Eddie" Edward Montgomery, recently released the song "Some People Change."

In an August 2005 interview published in the Sikeston, Mo.-based Standard Democrat, Gentry said he went on his first bear hunt in Minnesota that year, but had been unsuccessful.

"I did get to see a bear and had a great hunt. I am looking forward to going back next year," he said in the interview.

Greenly's mother, Lavonne, reached by telephone Tuesday night, called her son an "all-American outdoor kid" who had been running a "wildlife refuge" at his 80-acre property in Pine County for 15 years. The refuge 80 miles north of the Twin Cities is billed primarily as a place to shoot photographs.

"He started just showing people animals, then got talked into photography," she said.
According to court documents, Greenly kept multiple animals, including wolves and bears, on his property, called the Minnesota Wildlife Connection. Of the bears, "Cubby" was the biggest.
"Sometimes things go wrong. It hurts me he has to go through all this," Lavonne Greenly added, declining to talk further about the case.

Greenly himself could not be reached for comment.

The government further alleged that Greenly also worked as a commercial bear guide for those wanting to hunt in the Sandstone National Wildlife Refuge, close to his property, where it is illegal to hunt black bears. One client, authorities said, killed two black bears during a hunt in late August and early September 2005.

Greenly faces an additional five years in prison and $20,000 fine for each of those deaths, if convicted.

In 2004, Gentry made news locally when he said he would pay for the passage of a herd of deer onto Greenly's property, after the deer became trapped on Minneapolis Water Works property in Columbia Heights and the DNR moved to kill them.

At the time, Greenly called Gentry a frequent visitor to his preserve.
"He's gone fishing with me. We've gone on motorcycles. I've been to tour dates with him," Greenly told the Pioneer Press.