Three North Dakota men and two Texans have pleaded not guilty to federal charges they illegally helped clients shoot deer on an Indian reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border.

The men were arraigned in U.S. District Court in Aberdeen, S.D., last month on charges of conspiring to violate the federal Lacey Act and transporting wildlife taken in violation of state law or Indian law. The Lacey Act prohibits selling and transporting deer that have been shot illegally.

Sheldon Schlecht, 38, Streeter; Jeffrey Scott Smith, 42, Streeter; Michael John Keller, 22, Mandan; Jerry Donald Brooks, 56, Midlothian, Texas; and Charles Rodney Brooks, 58, Cedar Hills, Texas, all face the conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act, according to court documents.

Jerry Donald Brooks faces five additional counts, Smith faces three more counts, Charles Rodney Brooks faces two other counts, Schlecht faces two additional counts, and Keller faces one more count. All of those counts involve transporting illegally taken wildlife or "aiding and abetting."

The five were indicted in federal court in Pierre, S.D., in June.

The indictment alleges JerryDonald Brooks bought Sheldon's Guide Waterfowl, a North Dakota outfitting business, but did not meet the requirements for an outfitting license because it was not licensed in South Dakota.

The outfitting service booked clients from around the country for fall hunts in 2003 that would allow them to shoot two deer on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation, but the tribe decided not to allow the shooting of two deer, the indictment said.

The five men then used tribal licenses carrying their names or those of others to tag the second deer killed by their clients, according to the indictment. Some of the deer were allegedly shot on nontribal land without the required South Dakota license.

JerryDonald Brooks charged clients as much as $5,700 for the hunts that would allow them to shoot a white-tailed deer and a mule deer, the indictment said.

At least one client discovered the deception and became upset, according to the indictment.

The maximum penalty for each count is five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Schlecht, who was serving a year and a day sentence in the Stutsman County Correction Center after pleading guilty inApril to having sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl, also was ordered confined in South Dakota.

Kidder County prosecutors also charged Schlecht with gross sexual imposition in the case.

He pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of contributing to the depravation of a minor. His sentence was deferred for a year on condition he have no criminal violations during that period.

Schlecht has 12 game and fish violations, a public records check with the North Dakota Game and Fish Department revealed. There was no record of violations by the other men involved in the federal case.

Schlecht's most recent violation was illegally netting of northern pike this past April.

A jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 11 for at least some of the defendants, according to court documents.

(Reach reporter Richard Hinton at 701-250-8256 or richard.hinton@;bismarcktribune.com.)