SPOKANE -- The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) filed moose poaching charges against three Spokane men in Stevens County Court this week.

Tim W. McClung, 31, James D. Lewis Jr., 25, and Kenneth F. Goulding, 26, were charged with hunting moose during closed season. The charges follow a four-month investigation into the killing of a large bull moose killed in the Green Mountain area of Stevens County last October.

The fall moose hunting season in northeast Washington is open to about 30 once-in-a-lifetime permit holders drawn from a pool of applicants. None of the men charged had a moose-hunting permit.

According to Stevens County Deputy Prosecutor Lew Schrawyer, each of the three men could face up to $1,000 in criminal penalties and $4,000 in civil penalties, plus jail time, forfeiture of property used in the poaching, and loss of hunting privileges.