Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991                   TAG: 9103050270
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: BEDFORD                                LENGTH: Short

MAN ADMITS BRINGING BEAR TO BEDFORD

David B. Little of Richmond was fined $250 on the misdemeanor charge in Bedford County General District Court.

During the brief hearing Monday, game warden Daryl Hatcher described how Little arrived in Bedford, where bear hunting is legal, late in the afternoon of Dec. 8.

When he tried to weigh in the bear at a check-in station, Little claimed he had shot the 564-pound creature in the Shiloh section of Bedford County, Hatcher said.

That section, Hatcher explained, "is not known for its bear hunting." That raised investigators' questions about where the bear actually had been shot.

Questioned back in Lunenburg, Little admitted that he had caught the animal there - only to find out that bear hunting was illegal in Lunenburg, Little's defense attorney said.

That's when the 100-mile trip to Bedford began. The unusually large bear rode in the bed of Little's pickup.

Transporting a bear - a class 3 misdemeanor - could have carried a maximum $500 fine. Little still faces other, related charges in Lunenburg County.