Newport Man Is Sentenced for Killing Protected Swan

A Newport Beach man was sentenced to one year’s probation and fined $340 by a Riverside County judge Wednesday for shooting a whistling swan, a species protected under the state wildlife code.

Lawrence R. Harris, 58, pleaded guilty to taking the bird and was sentenced by Municipal Judge James T. Warren. But his hunting partner, Bernhart Robert E. Pautsch, 66, also of Newport Beach, pleaded innocent to the misdemeanor charge. He is scheduled to return to Mount San Jacinto Municipal Court on Feb. 10 for a pretrial hearing.

Pautsch’s attorney, Gary Gunderman, said the official reports he has seen so far indicated that a single pellet was found in the bird. “Only one person shot the bird,” Gunderman said.

The whistling swan, while not on the state list of endangered species, is protected because of its status as a migratory, non-game bird.

Harris and Pautsch were arrested by game wardens last November at a hunt club near Hemet after another hunter who witnessed the shooting called authorities on the Fish and Game Department’s toll-free hot line.