Oh, Jersey.
According to nj.com, authorities said they could not find any evidence that two New Jersey restaurants illegally purchased deer meat from a man accused of forcing his girlfriend to hunt while he used her head as a gunrest.
A Belmar restaurant and a Raritan restaurant were mentioned in a criminal complaint against Mark N. Jarema, who was charged in Pennsylvania for allegedly forcing his then-girlfriend to help him illegally hunt, among other things.
The complaint also alleged Jarema sold the deer meat to the two restaurants.
“We did not file any charges against any restaurants,” said Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Haina. “We were involved in providing information to the game commission, but we were not able to prove any connection to purchases or the sale.”
The Northeast Game Commission investigated Jarema after his girlfriend accused him of stealing a .30-06 caliber rifle from her mother’s house and using it to fire 30 shots, killing six to 10 deer before driving back to her mother’s house with three of the dead deer in 2010.
In her criminal complaint, the girlfriend said Jarema would sometimes use her head as a gun rest to steady the rifle.
The girlfriend said Jarema processed the deer in her mother’s basement on Oct. 24, and forced her to take pictures of him with the deer in various poses. Some of the poses show Jarema holding up the deer in his arms, some with beer bottles shoved in the deer’s mouths, according to the complaint. Others show the deer being “hung, skinned and and cut up for sale,” according to the complaint.
On Oct. 26, the girlfriend said, Jarema loaded the deer into the truck and had her drive him to the restaurant in Belmar; then to the restaurant in Raritan; and then to an auto garage in Bridgewater.