I think Mr.Chad Murphy is the criminal in this case he needs to be removed from his position. He is known for targeting other people and trying to set them up.It would be in his best interest to retire before things get ugly.

This Lewton jerk is nothing but a predator to animals and women. He should be locked up for a long time. He is no better than a pedophile on the loose at a boy scout camp!

The Lewton Trial – I see it differently
I sat in on all five days of John Lewton's trial and I came away with very different interpretation of the facts than what reporter Nick Gevock described it in the newspaper. So, I will try to give you a different perspective, along with some information you probably never read in the paper. Remember, John Lewton was found Not Guilty on all fifteen counts.
I understand that Mr. Gevock gets inside leads on stories from Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) and also from the Montana Attorney General’s office. So, he would, therefore, likely have some loyalties to them, as evidenced by the way he reported the case. His reporting had a definite pro-state bias. He made Lewton out to be another O.J Simpson – a guilty guy who just got away with it. But I was sitting in that court room and came away with a totally different impression, as did all twelve members of the jury. I’ll explain.
State couldn’t prove illegal purchase
First, to make the State's case that it was an unlawfully purchased and possessed game animal, they had to prove that the ram was unlawfully taken by the illegal use of radios while hunting, or hunting without land owner permission, or using motorized vehicles off-road or on private property without permission. The FWP only had to prove one of these charges, yet they failed in every aspect.
FWP covering its tail
What started to become very clear after the trial had progressed a few days was that FWP was desperate to cover up (for legal reasons as well as to avoid negative public opinion) their unnecessary killing of a record class bighorn ram when no crime had been committed by Lewton. The ram was apparently killed to create a situation that might be used to get Lewton to commit a crime. But Lewton didn’t take the bait. It sounds preposterous to think of FWP stooping to such a low, but you should have been there. It was the only conclusion I could draw, and obviously the jury felt the same way. What is amazing to me is that the press, so anxious to portray John Lewton as a bad guy during the trial, is glaringly silent on the debacle that FWP put Lewton and the taxpayers through - for nothing. And they had to have known they had no case going in.
Montana's Attorney General's office, Barbara Harris and Kathleen Jenks came off looking like puppets of FWP. And the lead investigator for FWP, Chad Murphy, considering the facts that came out during the trial, apparently has some ax to grind. It was apparent he would stop at nothing to pin the FWP's unnecessary killing of this ram on Lewton. But Lewton didn’t kill it, the FWP agent did, and he openly said so in court. So who’s the criminal here? The ram was killed simply to try to set up a situation that could be used to try to entrap someone. Its ironic that an agency charged with protecting wildlife would be killing wildlife just to try to cause somebody to commit a crime. Isn’t Law Enforcement supposed to be in the business of going after actual lawbreakers rather than trying to create new lawbreakers? Aren’t there enough lawbreakers out there already for them to chase?
Tampering with evidence
Another revealing moment was when investigator Murphy was exposed in court as having altered a BLM map by instructing the FWP's "expert witness", a map maker, to label a road "Private” that was actually public. This was an attempt to place Lewton where he shouldn’t be. WOW! He also then tried to lead the jury to believe it was a private road. Shouldn’t conduct like this, under oath, cost him his job? With an honest press and informed public this would undoubtedly happen, but once again, I’m not holding my breath.
Warden Gibson tries to justify unnecessarily killing ram
Then there was Justin Gibson, aka “Allen”, the under cover warden from Louisiana who shot the ram. I have never seen anyone entangle themselves and give such conflicting testimony as he did when he tried to somehow show that Lewton and his companions had illegally used radios in locating and stalking the ram. And when confronted with questions about why he went ahead and shot the ram when no crime had yet been committed, agent Gibson had a doozey to tell the jury. He stated he had to shoot the ram because, if he didn’t, he felt Lewton would take his scalpel out of his pack and possibly try to kill him and the other undercover warden Chris Ralph, who was there posing as Gibson’s buddy who’d come along for moral support. He proceeded to demonstrate how a knife at close range was more deadly than the high-powered bolt action rifle he was carrying. He claimed he would not be able to work the bolt on the rifle as fast Lewton could swing the knife. The faces in the court room had an expression of "you’ve got to be kidding”!
Attorney Jack Morris was quick to show that Gibson was both videoing and recording, making a log of the whole trip. Was Lewton going to actually attack an armed man and his companion right there on camera? John Lewton has no history of being a violent man, and at no point in the recording was it ever shown that there was any hint of hostility from Lewton. In fact, just the opposite was apparent - we heard Lewton say "don’t worry about the miss…” after Gibson fired and missed the ram“ ..everyone misses and we will do better next time".
When pressed again about why the ram had to die, Gibson tried another angle. He stated that the rams had been run ragged and were standing there panting, but the video showed the truth to the jury. The ram, along with two others, was standing in the shade after the miss. They stood so motionless (impossible if they’d been panting) that it looked as though the video was on pause.
Warden Gibson can’t shoot!
The sad irony here is that the only time the ram was filmed with its mouth open at all was after agent Gibson proceeded to gut shoot the ram twice, then shoot it once in the hoof and once in the horn. Gibson then missed it two more times! All on film! It was pathetic. You’d think that if FWP was going to pull a scam like this they’d send someone who could shoot!
Warden Gibson won’t call off sting when its obvious no crime has been committed
Attorney Morris also questioned Gibson on why he went ahead and shot this trophy ram, extremely valuable to the state, when he could have faked a miss or at least shot a smaller ram with less value to the state. He also asked Gibson why he didn’t use any of the “outs” the department had given him in case things had to be called off. “Outs” are excuses an agent can use to avoid killing an animal after it becomes apparent that the sting has failed or needs to be called off for any reason. His “outs” were to say that his wife was about the give birth, or that they had walked so hard the first day of the hunt that he had a 3 inch round blister on his foot. Either of these would have been a valid excuse for calling off the hunt.
Authority to kill came from higher up
Morris further pressed warden Gibson by asking: "is it not true, that we would not be here if you hadn’t shot this animal, belonging to the people?" And: “on on whose authority did you shoot this ram? Gibson stated his supervisor at the time Kevin Plegue (not sure of spelling) had given him the authority. Gibson also unwittingly showed how the FWP had deceived the public by taking the 20th coveted sheep permit for the unit and falsely saying that Gibson had drawn it.
Jim Kropp comments on the case after having not been at the Trial.
When Jim Kropp, Chief of Law Enforcement for Montana FWP, came in to hear only the closing arguments, he stated to reporter Nick Gevock that this case "wasn't about court room theatrics, accusing our officers of lying and planting evidence" (referring to the obvious but unproven conclusion that FWP agents had placed radios in places, to be “found” later, that would imply their illegal usage by Lewton and his crew). This statement, coming from a man who wasn’t even present during the trial, is ridiculous in light of the testimony given that so obviously proved to the jury that the case was a scam – a scam deemed necessary by FWP to cover that fact that they had illegally killed a trophy ram for no reason. In fact, in light of the way things came out, it appears that the only theatrics performed during the trial were performed by Kropp’s his own law enforcement officers, Justin Gibson and Chad Murphy.
Kropp falsely states to press that Lewton is repeat offender
Kropp also accused Lewton in the press of being a repeat offender. At this point I’m convinced that this had to be an attempt by Kropp to cast doubt on Lewton's character in the media, because the facts don’t support his claim. I called Mr. Lewton and asked him how long had he lived in Montana and if he ever been accused of violating a game law in the state of Montana. I was told he has been a resident of Montana and operated a taxidermy business for 20 years without any violations whatsoever. He also stated that James Reed and Blake Trangmoe (a friend of Lewton’s along for the hunt), the two other men accused in this case, have never been accused of any game violations in any state. Has the press looked into this?
Double standard gag order
Its ironic that a gag order had been placed on Lewton’s team after his attorney stated to the Whitehall newspaper that "this case should not be tried in the media but in a court of law". In the meantime Kropp was allowed to continue his unsubstantiated comments about Lewton. Its also amazing that the press gave him a pass. A few phone calls would have exposed Kropp’s ruse, but the papers seem to have Lewton already tried and convicted.
Conflict of interest?
A point that cannot be overlooked in this case, and one not brought up in trial, is the fact that the Montana Outfitters Association, who filed the original complaint against Lewton, contributes over 8 million dollars a year to FWP’s coffers. The reasons for their complaint therefore seem dubious in light of the fact that Lewton sometimes takes hunters (lucky enough to have drawn a tag) to some great trophy rams, for FREE! He hasn’t charged them a penny! This, I assume, is not only embarrassing to an outfitter who can’t find the rams, it must also be competition that irritates the heck out of them. So to me, this case against Lewton appears to be an attempt by the Montana Outfitters Association, who appear to be in bed with FWP, to get Lewton out of the way for good.
Everyone loses
The sad thing is that everyone loses in a case like this. John Lewton is obviously out an enormous amount of money in attorney’s fees and lost wages, and has been exposed to tremendous stress and character assassination. He ought to sue the FWP in my opinion. We, the public have lost a wildlife resource, as well as tax dollars used in a scam by a state agency bent on covering up its unscrupulous and illegal activities. We also lost confidence in law enforcement and its leaders.
FWP lost something extremely valuable and extremely difficult to repair – their credibility. And considering the tremendous amount of revenue that comes into this state from resident and out-of-state hunters, we may never be able to calculate to financial loss to the state from hunters who are now afraid to hunt in a state where the Game Wardens, and the entire FWP behave the way they did in this case. I thought that in this country we are assumed innocent until proven guilty. Someone should send FWP a copy of the constitution.