Second ‘turkey bandit’ defendant’s trial set

By James Tilson

Associate Editor

6-27-2019

MANTI—The other “turkey-bandit” defendant had his trial date set for the same date as his co-defendant last week in district court.

Paul Picklesimer, 41, appeared by telephone last Wednesday to set a trial date in his case. He is charged with one count of burglary, a third-degree felony, and theft of a farm animal, also a third-degree felony. If found guilty, Picklesimer could face up to five years in prison.

He, along with Wayne Hsiung, are activists with the organization DxE. They came to Sanpete County from California in 2017 to publicize the conditions of industrial turkey farming. While making a video of a turkey farm near Moroni, they took a young turkey from the farm.

Picklesimer’s attorney, Lawrence Sleight, told Judge Marvin Bagley their intention was to try the two co-defendants cases together all along. Sleight did not know why their cases had gotten separated, but he did want their cases back together.

Judge Bagley agreed that made sense, and set Picklesimer’s trial date for Dec. 12 through 16, with a final pretrial conference on Dec. 11.