Look back over the last few years, and you’ll find a handful of cases where overeager game wardens crossed the line, making false charges on hunters, particularly deer hunters that found success on a deer worthy of the wall.
And that’s exactly what Iowa deer hunter, Mark Luster, is saying happened to him this past season. Luster is suing Iowa state game warden, Dan Henderson, claiming the officer violated his constitutional rights and ultimately nailed him for bogus bait charges on the property where he killed a buck in 2024.
According to the suit, Luster killed a buck with his bow back in October of 2024. He was on a hunting property he and a friend owned together. After recovering the deer, Luster posted a photo of the deer to Facebook with the caption, “Checkmate!”
However, on that same day, Officer Henderson received a complaint that Luster had been baiting on that same property. The informant claimed knowing this because they had flown over the property with a drone back in August.
But is corn on the ground in August worthy of charges for a buck killed in October?
Not exactly. After all, Iowa law simply requires hunters to remove bait from a hunting area at least 10 days before the start of the first deer season.
Still, Officer Henderson decided to investigate further. As game wardens often do, he scrolled through Luster’s Facebook photos and found two trail camera pictures that were taken October 9th that showed a buck standing over a bare dirt spot.
Those trail cam photos were all Henderson felt like he needed to obtain a search warrant on October 16.
The warrant allowed Henderson to collect soil samples at this bait site on Luster’s hunting property.
Soil samples would later show “over 500 Mg of sodium at the bait site as well as DEET being a chemical used in the bait,” according to the lawsuit.
That was enough for Henderson to apply for another warrant to search Luster’s home, pointing to the soil sample results as probable cause.
On November 15th, Henderson applied for a second warrant to search Luster’s house, pointing to the lab results as probable cause, even though the soil testing couldn’t distinguish between recent baiting and baiting from back in August.
Henderson executed that search warrant on November 18th and charged Luster at his residence with three misdemeanors. The charges included: making a false ownership claim to get a landowner’s tag and two charges of hunting deer in the presence of bait.
Back in January, the state dismissed the first charge since Luster was verified as part owner of the hunting property.
According to the lawsuit, the other two charges were dismissed in March with both bait charges, hunting over bait and attempting to hunt over bait, being unfounded.
And that’s when Luster’s legal team went to work fighting against unjust moves by the game warden.
Filed May 16 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, the hunter’s lawsuit accuses Henderson, who has 15 years with the DNR, of violating the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
It alleges that Henderson deliberately and illegally obtained a search warrant to pin Luster with charges of hunting over bait, all in an effort to punish him for his success.
Luster’s attorney claims that Henderson was acting “maliciously” by bringing the charges and violating Luster’s Fourth Amendment rights in the process.
“When he applied for the search warrants as described above, Officer Henderson intentionally and recklessly made material misstatements and omissions in his affidavits in support of those applications,” the lawsuit reads. “Officer Henderson’s intentional and reckless material misstatements were maliciously made by him with evil motive and intent.”
As you can imagine, the accusations were all that were necessary for a firestorm of criticism toward Luster. He claims it’s ruined his reputation.
He’s been a regular on a number of whitetail deer podcast and videos over the years. So accusations of this nature are obviously damaging, causing hunters to question his credibility, and prevent future opportunities.
“As a result of the unlawful searches and Officer Henderson’s pursuit of charges against Luster without lawful probable cause, Luster has suffered injury to his reputation, harm to his mental health, and economic losses.” the suit claims.
We want to hear from you. What are your thoughts on this case? Have you ever had a situation where a game warden crossed the line?
Comment below, and let us know what you think.
