TN man’s legal battle after finding TWRA hidden camera on his property

CAMDEN, Tenn. (WKRN) — Should you discovered cameras in your property, odds are, you’d be a bit shocked.

“It was proper right here,” Camden resident, Hunter Hollingsworth, stated whereas pointing at a tree on his property. “Out of these two little scrub oaks, it was on the one on the proper, form of proper the place that gap is correct in there. Ten toes up or so.”

Hollingsworth has lived in Camden his total life—its inhabitants is lower than 4,000. Looking and fishing aren’t simply hobbies in these components—for a lot of, they’re a faith.

“Since I used to be in pull-ups,” Hollingsworth stated when requested how lengthy he’s been searching.

In a narrative first extensively reported by Area & Stream journal, Hollingsworth was driving on his searching property one morning in January 2018 when he seen one thing odd in one of many timber.

“As we got here across the curve, my headlights caught one thing shining within the tree. I assumed it was a coon or a possum or some animal in a tree,” he stated. “So, I grabbed a flashlight out of my truck and shined the tree to see what it was, and I noticed that it was a digicam with an antenna.”

He took the digicam down and located footage of TWRA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brokers on them—in addition to himself.

Hollingsworth put it in his gun secure and primarily forgot about it till that fall. That’s when legislation enforcement got here knocking with a search warrant, saying he stole the digicam.

“They’d on bulletproof vests, first support kits, further magazines, like they had been a SWAT crew to come back get this digicam that I ‘stole’ that was on my property illegally,” Hollingsworth stated. “They searched my entire home.”

Officers handcuffed Hollingsworth however he didn’t go to jail or obtain a quotation that day.

Months later, U.S. Fish and Wildlife charged him with a number of violations, together with unlawful baiting and theft of presidency property. Hollingsworth took a plea deal to drop many of the fees, which resulted within the suspension of his license for 3 years.

In response, he filed a lawsuit difficult the constitutionality of the cameras. A federal court docket threw the lawsuit out. With authorized charges including up, Hollingsworth was operating out of choices.

“You’re enjoying towards a loaded deck to start out with,” he stated. “Your common individual doesn’t have the funds or the time to battle them as a result of they’ll simply drag you out and run you out of cash.”

That’s when the Institute for Justice, a non-profit, public legislation agency stepped in.

As Hollingsworth got here to seek out out, he wasn’t the one one the TWRA was watching.

Reporter’s notice: It is a advanced story with many events and complicated points. We acknowledge there are a number of sides to this story. Over the subsequent couple of days, we’ll carry you extra from Hollingsworth, the opposite man who spoke in regards to the TWRA watching him, the Institute for Justice and the TWRA itself.