Pershing County Commission Chairman Joe Crim has been ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and is barred from hunting for a year after entering a guilty plea to a misdemeanor stemming from a bear killing.

Crim also serves as chairman of the Nevada Department of Wildlife’s Pershing County Advisory Board. The incident was investigated by NDOW.

“One would question why a person who pleads guilty to a crime related to a killing is allowed to continue serving in an advisory capacity for the state wildlife commission, which continues to allow this unpopular black bear trophy hunt,” said Kathryn Bricker of No Bear Hunt Nevada. “This is just the most recent example of the regulatory capture that plagues our current wildlife agency and commission.”

Image

NDOW has no say in the selection of advisory board members, spokesperson Ashley Zeme said Friday.

Crim’s hunting guide, Michael Stremler, will pay $10,000 and is also prohibited from hunting for a year. Stremler is the owner of Secret Pass Outfitters. He also pled guilty to a misdemeanor count for pursuing a bear with dogs in a closed wildlife management area in Washoe Valley.

“Neither Joe Crim nor Mike Stremler pled guilty to a wildlife crime in this case,” Stremler’s attorney, Brad Johnston, said Friday.

Crim did not respond to a request for comment. Johnston, a former Nevada Wildlife Commissioner, said in 2024 the state, which originally charged the two with felonies, had no case.

The Current reported the two were charged with felonies for the November 2023 incident. The criminal complaint alleged Crim and Stremler, “acting alone or in concert,” knowingly killed the bear outside the permitted hunting zone, and are criminally liable for directly committing the act or by conspiring.

“We worked on a resolution with the state and resolved the case,” Johnstone said Friday. The state, he said, couldn’t prove the original charges “because they had to prove that Mike Stremler and Joe Crim knowingly harvested the bear in the closed area. The definition is alone, very confusing.”

The two subsequently pleaded guilty to reduced misdemeanor charges of conspiring to trespass. A one year jail sentence was suspended, a Reno television station reported.

The illegal killing of a big game animal is a Category E felony, the least serious felony in Nevada, which carries a sentence of up to four years in prison and up to a $5,000 fine. Offenders are generally placed on probation.

The killing came to light when a routine report filed by hunters with NDOW revealed a hunter slaughtered an eight-year-old male bear weighing 575 pounds on Nov. 10, 2023 near Ophir Creek. The area was not approved for bear hunting.

Stremler had no master guide license at the time, according to an NDOW document.

“Chasing down a bear with dogs in that area could have injured hikers and others,” Bricker said at the time, noting tag holders and their guides are required to know the rules of the hunt. She says guides using GPS-collared dogs use topographic maps and are aware of their location.

Johnston says the GPS app used by the hunters “did not identify the closed area.”