Several certainly would have. It isn't like anybody from the wardens or family was up front about the fact that he admitted to breaking the law, but they were involved in several fundraisers as contacts.

I am sure they knew that if the information got out, little money would be raised. Heck, they were advertising fundraising on the Texas Game Wardens Facebook page, even!



Nobody is saying they wanted his life lost, just pointing out that the problem goes beyond the single warden.

Y'all know my dim view of most game wardens. However, I separate critical injury from criminal behavior. His criminal behavior certainly should have resulted in his loss of job. There is no valid excuse for not firing him.

And no way should state resources be used for promoting his fundraising.

But private fundraising is perfectly fine IMO. He should have been defrocked ASAP tho so people could make informed decisions.

And I guess folks who don't know a lot of GW's are crooks believe in the tooth fairy too.

That's probably why he got off the rap and kept his job. Hard to be too tuff on someone just doing what is common practice.

For sure.

Also amusing, the warden had the nerve to pursue and TPWD calling his action of "transitioned to law enforcement mode"

That is sad. And I am not talking about your view.

They are censoring their FB page too, I haven't posted anything but have been watching comments vanish.

It hit the Stateman, bunny hugger groups are going to want him fried for murdering bambi's dad illegally.

Sad

Yes Sir you are right. I was one of the dummies who believed he was of good moral character because he was a Game warden.
I'm glad that he is ok. Just shouldn't be a Game Warden anymore

As I see it, it boils down to three simple steps:
1) Anyone who earns a living from our tax dollars should be held to the highest standard of conduct.
2) Anyone who has governmental authority over us "common folks" should be held to an even higher standard.
3) Anyone who knowingly breaks the laws that they are paid to enforce, should be punished far beyond the norm.

Maybe I'm just simple minded..........

I fail to see in the criminal code where there is a section for higher standards. Special treatment for special people seems outside of the typical code.

You know, if we just bothered to prosecute people fully with the laws we have in place, we would not need this arbitrary and undefined "higher standard" demands folks make.

With that said, I can't believe TPWD didn't fire him. No higher standard there either. He failed to follow through on his sworn oath to uphold the law which was a condition of employment. He broke that condition, hence he should be fired.

What D N S just said +1...KISS Priciple at work for all involved.
JMHO & YMMV
Ron

+1. The higher/lower standard comes into play when sentencing the convict, that's why there's a range to allow the sentencing party to judge the merits and lessen the blow or light 'em up.

Have to have a higher standard for them to be credible for the prosecutors and fellow officers to effectively do their jobs. The other party will have an attorney with a job to destroy their credibility and when it's a matter of public record they don't have a tough task on their hands. Now any case with his name attached to the prosecutors will have to work damage control knowing it's coming.

I mean an "on-duty" officer got shot in the LEO backing state of Texas. The shooter shot across property boundaries, didn't render aid, shot an officer, etc....got in trouble for shooting a sign......

Y'all are gonna have to work hard to get this up to speed. The thread on TBH about this is up to almost 600 posts.

Karma is unforgiving.

There is no karma......and justice is as rare as honesty ....

I read an article today about this guy (which I can't find now, so take it for what it's worth) that said while he laid dying after being shot, he took his cell phone out to call his wife to say goodbye. But! He accidentally called a wildlife biologist instead, and he knew exactly where he was and was able to locate him and save his life by getting help.

Now, we learn that his wildlife biologist friend that was "accidentally" called instead of his wife, was also a poacher.

I understand skepticism of my post so far, and I will keep looking for the article that I read, but this is part of my issue with this situation.

Some people on here, at least one, donated either money or a high dollar shotgun, to his recovery. What is most tragic about this situation is, people will now be skeptical of game wardens, who have a very tough, dangerous and important job.

Much like what happens with police officers when there is a supposed scandal or perceived "towing the blue line" is it doesn't make sense to not fire the offending officer, in this case a warden charged with combating poaching who was, in fact, poaching himself. And admitted or was caught poaching three other times. In a perfect world, game wardens would want him to be fired, and he would have been, because it makes them all look bad by association, rightly or wrongly.

If they were all duped too, like the person that donated a shotgun to be auctioned for his recovery, that's one thing. But he was not only allowed to keep his job, he was allowed to file for work an's comp, and if he wasn't awarded compensation, they should say so, but they won't, which leads me to believe he collected. That's very wrong, if true. Again, if he duped everyone he works with and it just came out this week that he was poaching, but they fired him after the revelation, fine. However, that's not the case. He had done it and admitted/been found to have poached three other times.

This is an egregious violation of ethics and should be considered a cardinal sin for a game warden.

Makes me suspect there are some people higher up the ladder who are afraid to do what is right and fire this poacher because they have to worry about their own careers. What is the old story about LEOs sticking together. Even when one is caught more than once.

Now if this was some poor fellow trying to feed his family or some person with a two-bit felony charge, everyone would be ready to confiscate his gun, and truck and boat, plus having him pay a hefty fine. But it appears the beloved game wardens are above the law, just like rock stars and athletes. Shameful is what it is. And we have posts criticizing our youth.

Naw, the poor fellow was concerned for the needy. His goal was to kill an antlerless buck in order to give it to the food shelter. Ha!

He wasn't going to hide his kill. Nope, that would be deceitful. He was going to report it to the wildlife biologist who works there in the WMA. That sounds great, doesn't it? Then you read that the wildlife biologist he called after being shot was also a fricking poacher!!!!!

Fried just keeps lying out of his donkey over and over.

http://www.pressreader.com/usa/austin-american-statesman-sunday/20150705/283150017356765/TextView

The fact that many people donated to his recovery and prayed for it shouldn't be questioned. He still is a person, still a son, husband and dad. Did he do wrong? Yep. But not wrong enough to deserve to be shot and let die. This laundry cycle isn't over I'm sure. There will be enough public outcry that the managers of TPWD will have to adjust on this.

You think people would have been as generous had it been presented as Donate to Warden who was shot while poaching? It wasn't presented that way despite that fact being known at the time and that workers comp was being filed. Accepting other's generosity knowing that half truths are being told on your behalf shows a lot about a person's character. It's terrible he got shot, terrible what his family had to go through, don't wish that on anyone...just be truthful and it doesn't leave near the bad taste in people's mouths.

I'm not a warden fan, poacher or not. Too many I've dealt with were unprofessional, rude azzes. But I still would have prayed for any of them in need just like I do for any real prayer request I see.

You can pray for who you want to, but Fried accepted $$ to help offset his expenses of being shot while performing illegal activity that he was sworn to protect against.

rifleman is right. A lot less people would have been as generous had it been presented as Donate to Warden who was shot while poaching. Fried knew it. Fellow wardens knew it. His family knew it. The poaching biologist knew it.

Accepting money under such dubious circumstances is deceitful.

Come on D N S, the poor guy was not paid for 30 days.

I have to correct you that he did not got shot while performing illegal activity. Remember the "mode transition"?

Too funny from every angle.

Almost fraud..........

I wish THF and other Texas hunting groups, would petition the TP&W and Governor Abbot to terminate this Warden and the supervisory staff that accepted this behavior. Them condoning this because it is the "standard used against civilians" is IMO, BS. He is not a civilian in his capacity and what he was involved in. I am former LEO and this stinks to high heavens. Gives the term on the License plate, "EXEMPT", a whole new meaning.