By Gail Geraghty,Staff Writer

PARIS – Maine guide Lawrence Perry was all smiles Thursday after Judge Ellen Gorman imposed the lightest possible sentence – three days in jail – after a jury convicted him last month of nine of 29 counts of violating state game laws.

After the sentence was read in Oxford County Superior Court, Perry’s lawyer, William Maselli, surprised Gorman by announcing he was appealing the verdict to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Perry, 56, of Fryeburg, was also ordered to pay $2,700 in fines and $955 in court costs. Both the jail time and the fine were stayed pending the outcome of the appeal.

“I’m taking this all the way to the end, and standing up for what is right,” said Perry, who says he was a victim of illegal entrapment by an overzealous undercover game warden. “I’m appealing so what was done to me doesn’t have to happen to anyone else.”

Perry said Game Warden Bill Livezey “lied” and “instigated” during his undercover investigation in the fall of 2003, which led to the charges of illegal hunting against Perry and 15 others.

“He did everything in his power to make things go wrong,” Perry said of Livezey.

All of the other defendants, including two other Maine guides, pleaded guilty in negotiated plea agreements, and did not take their cases to trial.

Perry was found guilty on one of five counts of driving deer, two of five counts of having a loaded firearm in a vehicle, one of four counts of unlawful bear hunting with more than four dogs and one count of hunting a doe without a doe permit.

He was also found guilty of illegal possession of a deer killed at night, driving a bear through New Hampshire, shooting at a bobcat out of season and not wearing hunter orange when he shot at the bobcat.

The three-day mandatory minimum sentence was imposed for illegal possession of a deer killed at night.

Gorman said she was influenced in her sentencing decision by overwhelming support shown Perry by community members and fellow hunters, and Perry’s lack of any criminal record.

Testifying on his behalf Thursday was his minister, the Rev. Ken Turley of the Church of the New Jerusalem in Fryeburg, his fiance’, Terri Fowler, and Greg Cunningham of Denmark. Cunningham said Perry’s coaching of him as a youth helped turn his life around.

Referring to a stack of letters written by family, friends and community leaders in support of Perry, Gorman said it’s clear that Perry “has the genuine support of his community.” She also indicated that the jury, who deliberated for 11 hours after the three-day trial, saw reasons to acquit Perry on a majority of the charges against him.

“The prosecution’s vision (of Perry) is significantly different,” Gorman said, than the letter-writers, who portrayed Perry as a lawful hunter, good family man and a hard-working man of gentleness and integrity.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor was unavailable for comment after the verdict. He didn’t offer any specific recommendation for sentencing Thursday, but stressed the need for a strong-enough jail sentence to serve as a deterrent to the hunting community.

Perry faced a maximum sentence of six months on each of the eight misdemeanor charges, which, if concurrent, could have resulted in a four-year jail sentence.

Each of the nine counts could have resulted in fines of $1,000 each.

O’Connor said Perry has shown no remorse despite being convicted by a jury of his peers. Everyone else in the case has “accepted responsibility” by pleading guilty to the charges against them, he said.

“Some people are only deterred (from poaching) by the likelihood of significant punishment,” O’Connor said. While acknowledging Perry’s lack of a criminal record, O’Connor said Perry had a special obligation as a Maine guide to uphold Maine’s hunting laws.