Court case mushrooms out of control for delayed defendant

Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Gary McCullough

Almost every criminal court case comes accompanied with a moral to its story. This one has a moral and some morels as well.

It's the story of an eight-year-old lingering court case. Some innocent mushroom hunting. An obscure southwestern Indiana law. And a cruel twist of fate.

Gary A. McCullough, a 55-year-old former Cloverdale man, found himself at the center of this unique tale, essentially cast as both victim and perpetrator in a Putnam Superior Court case.

In court on a petition to revoke probation in a 2005 case Friday afternoon, McCullough would not have even been in not-so-resplendent Putnam County Jail orange were it not for a decision to go mushroom hunting with some friends early last week in Sullivan County.

Unbeknownst to McCullough and friends as they wandered the hills and hollers of Sullivan County that day, they were running afoul of the law.

Apparently there is a unique rule on the books in those rural environs.

After the Superior Court hearing, local authorities noted McCullough was ultimately arrested because of a Sullivan County regulation declaring it illegal to mushroom hunt before 1 p.m. on any day during turkey season.

Certainly that seems like a well-intended rule, the kind designed to protect us all from ourselves while making it illegal to be in the woods where a turkey hunter might mistake you and your bread sack full of musky morels for a grand old gobbler.

However, before one of those hunters could draw a bead on McCullough and friends and ruffle their feathers that morning, a Conservation Department officer reportedly approached them. The officer was all set to issue warnings for their transgressions when a routine check of their identifications fingered McCullough as wanted on a warrant from Putnam County.

Apparently back in September 2005 McCullough had agreed to plead guilty to false reporting (with alcohol and marijuana charges dropped in the process) but failed to appear at subsequent evidentiary hearings set by the court. He has been wanted ever since on a warrant for petition to revoke probation.

"A warrant was issued," Judge Denny Bridges said, tryng to summarize the old case and what had transpired in the interim. "Apparently they just now found you."

McCullough said he was living out in the country at the time of the initial court hearing, and came to the courthouse on what he thought was the intended appearance date, only to find the hearing had been rescheduled. After that, he just never came back.

He has been living and working at the Lighthouse Mission in Terre Haute the past 16 months, he told the court, noting he has been sober for two years.

In court Friday, McCullough, sporting long, salt-and-pepper hair and a lengthy gray beard, admitted his guilt to violating probation.

Following his arrest by Sullivan County authorities last week, he spent two days in jail there and one in Putnam County after being transported back here to appear in court. Back in 2005, it was noted, he had served 76 days in jail before entering a guilty plea in the case.

Openly admitting his probation violation again on a Friday afternoon eight years later won McCullough some bonus points from the judge.

Commiserating with the odd ordeal, Bridges sentenced the erstwhile mushroom hunter to time served and released McCullough with his cases considered closed out.

And the moral to this story?

Never hunt for morels when there are turkeys to be taken.

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  • Ahhh- just let him go. He was just hungry.

    -- Posted by GRNT on Wed, May 8, 2013, at 7:56 AM
  • Seriously, a Conservation Officer was out in the woods trying to catch someone for hunting morels before 1pm during turkey season? LMAO!!! Hilarious. Good job, buddy! ha ha ha ha ha ha

    -- Posted by Emmes on Fri, May 10, 2013, at 11:41 AM
  • Now, how much tax money was spent hunting for this erstwhile mushroom hunter??? Who was the real turkey in this case??

    -- Posted by donantonioelsabio on Sat, May 11, 2013, at 5:47 PM
  • Wow... I just realized what a lawbreaking hoodlum I am! Well I guess that makes my grandma 1 too, just to think of alllll the days we went mushroom hunting before 1pm during turkey season...should I turn myself in???? Ohhhhhh the shame!

    I'm glad this guy was shown some leniency !!

    -- Posted by truthis on Wed, May 15, 2013, at 8:44 AM
  • Some people have too much time on their hands! I think he deserves a cookie

    -- Posted by higgins on Fri, May 17, 2013, at 2:46 PM
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