Editor's Note: This is part 2 of a two-part series. Read part 1 here.

Someone in a trio of Outside men that former Alaska Division of Wildlife Conservation director Corey Rossi took on a bear hunt on the north side of Cook Inlet in 2008 is now in trouble with the law.

Who it is, what they did, and where they did it has not been reported. But what is known from an Alaska State Troopers statement is this: "Charges (against Rossi) were filed . . . following an investigation by the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, Wildlife Investigations Unit after learning of the offenses through an unrelated out-of-state operation conducted by another agency."

Anyone who has watched a TV crime drama knows what that statement means. Somebody got in trouble, and they gave up the biggest prize they had in an effort to get out from under the thumb of the law. Rossi was, for someone, that prize. There were three Outside businessmen hunting with Rossi in 2008: David Reis from Colorado, Duane Stroupe from Oregon, and Robert "Bruce" Hubbard from Utah. Troopers got a jump start on their investigation when they were delivered the names.

As is the norm in these cases, troopers immediately began checking the obvious: Had the hunters in question been in Alaska at the time? Had they purchased Alaska hunting licenses? Had they reported on the success, or lack thereof, of their hunts as required by law? If they'd shot any animals requiring a state seal, had the hides been sealed?

What investigators found, according to court records, was that Reis reported killing a bear on June 11, 2008, as required by law. Neither Hubbard nor Stroupe, according to those documents, reported killing anything. But Rossi -- apparently unaware of Reis's report -- went on record as having killed four bears while guiding Reis, Hubbard and Stroupe on the June hunt.

The documents do not say why troopers had suspicion to believe Stroupe and Hubbard had killed bears while on that hunt, too. But the court documents reveal that when asked about the hunt the two men admitted to collectively shooting three bears.

Why report killing 4 bears?

Rossi apparently reported shooting four bears, unaware Reis had reported his kill. There was, at the time, no limit on the number of black bears that Alaska resident hunters like Rossi could shoot in the area just north of Anchorage, and Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, an organization with which Rossi was deeply involved, was promoting black bear hunts as a predator-control measure.

Rossi has not said why he reported killing all four bears, but by reporting Hubbard's two kills as his own, Rossi protected the Utah hunter from charges of shooting more bears than he was legally allowed to kill. Hubbard held a lone Alaska black bear tag, according to court documents. And by reporting all the dead bears as his own, Rossi opened the door for the nonresident hunters to use the tags they had purchased to shoot more bears.

Why Rossi bothered to report guiding a hunt with men who appear to have been friends is, like many aspects of this case, unclear. Reis, Hubbard and Stroupe were not required to hire a guide to hunt black bears in Alaska. The whole group could have claimed to be no more than a hunting party of friends -- unless Rossi was getting paid for putting together the hunt.

Wildlife managers who worked with Rossi during his time at Fish and Game said he regularly made trips Outside to hunt. It is unclear if any of those hunts are linked to what happened in Alaska, but Hubbard's firm -- Triple H Hunting -- outfits hunt all over the West. And in the hunting fraternity it is common to trade services. Alaska hunting guides, and fishing guides, are often offered hunting and fishing opportunities in the Lower 48 in exchange for help setting up excursions in the 49th state. This is especially true in the big-game guiding business given a state law that requires non-resident hunters to hire a guide when hunting brown/grizzly bears, Dall sheep or mountains goats. The state considers those animals too dangerous to be hunted alone by nonresidents.