Rich jerk update

Buffalo huntin' high-tech exec goes to jail.

This week, one of the poster-boys for "Rich jerk watch" was finally sentenced for massacring his neighbor's buffalo herd. Jeffrey Scott Hawn, CEO of Seattle's Attachmate, was sentenced to 10 days in prison and two years probation after pleading guilty to a felony charge for arranging for a group of hunters to mass slaughter a nearby rancher's stock.

According to media accounts, he's also paying $83,000 to the herd's owner, $4,000 to the local sheriff's department, and $70,000 to charities. If he stays clean for two years, the felony is wiped from his record. Weirdly, he's not the only high-tech exec from Seattle who has been in trouble for killing animals. There's also the case of the Microsoft exec who chased down and killed antelope with his SUV.


About the Author

Knute Berger is Mossback, Crosscut's chief Northwest native. He also writes the monthly Grey Matters column for Seattle magazine and is a weekly Friday guest on Weekday on KUOW-FM (94.9). His newest book is Pugetopolis: A Mossback Takes On Growth Addicts, Weather Wimps, and the Myth of Seattle Nice, published by Sasquatch Books. In 2011, he was named Writer-in-Residence at the Space Needle and is author of Space Needle, The Spirit of Seattle (2012), the official 50th anniversary history of the tower. You can e-mail him at mossback@crosscut.com.

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