Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not face charges for dumping a bear carcass in Central Park in 2014 due to the statute of limitations for such offenses. File Photo by Jemal Countess/UPI | License Photo
Aug. 5 (UPI) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will not face charges for dumping a bear cub carcass in New York’s iconic Central Park in 2014.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation told UPI in a statement Monday that the statute of limitations for such an offense is only a year and therefore charges in the matter cannot be applied.
The bear had been discovered by a woman in the fall of 2014 and made headlines. Questions were raised over how the carcass ended up in the iconic park in bushes under a bicycle.
And the mystery remained until Sunday when the long-shot independent presidential candidate and known conspiracy theorist admitted that he had dumped the bear in the park as a joke.
In a bizarre video he published to X, Kennedy is seen telling actress and comedian Rosanne Barr how he came into possession of the bear.
He said he was driving to Goshen, N.Y., to meet a group of people to go falconing when the car in front of him struck and killed the bear cub.
Determining it was still in “very good condition,” Kennedy put the carcass in his trunk with intentions to skin and butcher it.
After returning to Manhattan, he attended a dinner that ran late, which did not afford him the time to go home and leave the bear there before heading to the airport, so he decided to abandon the carcass in the park with a bicycle that had also been in his truck to make it seem as if it had been hit and killed in a bicycle accident.
He explained that there had been several fatal bicycle accidents in the city at that time, and those whom he had been with had been drinking and thought his joke a “great idea.”
Kennedy said a fact checker with The New Yorker had contacted him about the story, and he was seemingly admitting to it and publishing the video online in an effort to undercut the potential political fallout of his actions of a decade ago.
“Looking forward to seeing how you spin this one, @Newyorker…,” the caption accompanying the 3 1/2-minute video said.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation told UPI illegal possession of a bear without a tag or permit and illegal disposal of a bear are both violation-level offenses usually subject to fines of up to $250.
It said it had led the 2014 investigation, and forensic analysis had concluded the bear cub had died from “trauma consistent with a high-speed collision.”
“The investigation was closed later that year due to a lack of sufficient evidence to determine if violations occurred,” it said.
On X on Monday following news coverage of his admission, Kennedy accused the media of “amplifying trivial stories to damage disfavored political figures.”
“Let’s hold our media to a higher standard!” he said.
Meanwhile, the New York City Department of Sanitation seemingly used the attention for education, posting information to X on Monday on how to dispose of a dead animal in the Big Apple.
