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Hermitage fisherman who cheated in tournament, now accused of poaching deer
A Hermitage man convicted of cheating in a fishing tournament is now accused of poaching deer in Pennsylvania.
Wednesday, October 25th 2023, 9:56 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, October 25th 2023, 2:56 PM EDT
By Mike Gauntner
Chase Cominsky
Chase Cominsky
A Hermitage man convicted of cheating in a fishing tournament is now accused of poaching deer in Pennsylvania.
Thirty-six-year-old Chase Cominsky made news headlines and became a target on social media a year ago after he and an Ohio man angered fellow anglers after a video circulated showing officials of a Lake Erie fishing tournament discovering that the two had put lead weights in their catch hoping to win some lucrative prizes.
Both were sentenced to ten days in jail, fined, and had their fishing licenses suspended.
This past Monday, a Pennsylvania Game Warden assigned to Mercer County filed eight charges against Cominsky alleging that between 2013 and 2021, he harvested several white-tailed deer out of season and without a valid license.
Authorities searched Cominsky’s Keel Ridge Road home in April, seizing three mounted trophy class antlered deer heads labeled with his wife’s “kill tags”.
Although licensed, Cominsky’s wife told game officials she never killed a deer, claiming that her husband brought down the animals using guns or crossbows.
According to a criminal complaint, Cominsky’s hunting license had been suspended from 2008 through 2021 for multiple game law violations.
Cominsky is scheduled to appear before a district magistrate on November 14 to answer charges that include taking big game out of season, failure to attach a tag to big game, and lending a kill tag.
Cominsky is also awaiting trial in Mercer County Common Pleas Court in a separate case involving charges of conspiracy to commit forgery and theft by deception.
The charges stem from an incident earlier this year when Cominsky allegedly gave his son two phony $100 bills to spend at a bowling alley.
Cominsky’s 18-year-old son has already been placed on probation for one year after pleading guilty to theft by deception in the case.
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