TIMES NEWS (Kingsport, Tennessee) 03 March 11 3 more arrested in Tenn. snake bite death (Bill Poovey)
Chattanooga, Tenn. (AP): Wildlife officials arrested three Tennessee men Wednesday in the investigation into a fatal snake bite.
Each faces multiple counts of violating wildlife laws governing native and imported snakes, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said in an e-mail statement.
The charges of possessing, housing and transporting snakes relate to an investigation of the Jan. 29 death of Wade Westbrook of East Ridge, a Chattanooga suburb. Westbrook died after he was bitten by a copperhead that he was handling at his home in Hamilton County.
The Sheriff’s Department website identifies the men arrested as Michael Roger Clark, 32, and Derek Lee Schrader, 20, of Chattanooga and Timothy L. Lunsford, 36, of East Ridge. A jailer said they were released on bond and records do not show that they have attorneys.
Schrader’s mother when contacted by telephone said the men told her to say no comment.
Arrest affidavits show officers found that Lunsford took a "spitting cobra" from one home in East Ridge to another in the county and Schrader transported another species of venomous snake, a puff adder, between the same addresses.
Wildlife officials previously charged Chuck Hurd, 38, of Gate City, Va., with 48 misdemeanor charges related to officers confiscating his poisonous snakes in Hamilton County after Westbrook’s death. Hurd, a snake collector and dealer who shows them and speaks by invitation to groups and at exotic animal shows, has a March 30 court hearing in Chattanooga. He has said his arrest after Westbrook’s death was because of "mass hysteria" in East Ridge.
Tennessee law prohibits possessing any native species in a captive environment or transporting any species that poses a public safety issue.
3 more arrested in Tenn. snake bite death