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Impartial presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s 2014 disposal of a lifeless bear cub in New York Metropolis’s Central Park might have violated state legislation, punishable by a positive of as much as $250, however the statute of limitations for the legislation in query expired after one 12 months, the state company that led the investigation mentioned in an announcement to CNN.
Kennedy has made gentle of a decade-old incident by which he drove a lifeless bear cub carcass from upstate New York to New York Metropolis and positioned it in Central Park, joking, “perhaps that’s the place I obtained my mind worm,” referring to a previous medical abnormality he has mentioned was attributable to a parasitic worm in his mind.
The New York State Division of Environmental Conservation led the 2014 investigation into how a bear cub carcass had made into the well-known Manhattan public park.
The New Yorker revealed a profile of Kennedy on Monday morning that included the anecdote and a photograph of Kennedy with the lifeless bear cub, which he had picked up from the facet of the street whereas on a visit upstate. When Kennedy returned to Manhattan later that day, he left the carcass within the park in a option to make it appear to be it had been hit by a bicycle owner, the New Yorker reported, and the invention of the bear carcass attracted information protection and prompted an investigation by native authorities. Kennedy revealed the incident on social media on Sunday as a part of an effort to get forward of the journal’s story.
In an announcement Monday afternoon, the New York State Division of Environmental Conservation mentioned that it “led the 2014 investigation and forensic evaluation into the Central Park bear cub and concluded the bear died from blunt-force trauma in step with a high-speed collision.”
The investigation closed later that 12 months as a result of “a scarcity of enough proof to find out if violations occurred,” the assertion mentioned. It famous that state legislation “contains offenses corresponding to unlawful possession of a bear with out a tag or allow and unlawful disposal of a bear,” carrying fines of up to $250 for first-time offenders.
The Kennedy marketing campaign didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the assertion.
The bear incident is the most recent in a sequence of weird episodes from Kennedy’s life which have been revealed over the course of his 2024 presidential marketing campaign.
The New Yorker article contains a picture of Kennedy sticking his hand within the lifeless bear’s mouth, pantomiming as if the bear is biting his hand. The picture echoes a photograph revealed by Self-importance Honest final month of Kennedy pretending to eat a cooked animal carcass. Self-importance Honest reported Kennedy despatched the photograph to a pal whereas suggesting they struggle consuming canine. The publication consulted with a veterinarian who mentioned the carcass within the photograph seemed to be a canine.
When requested concerning the bear incident, he informed the journal, “Perhaps that’s the place I obtained my mind worm,” referencing a 2010 incident by which Kennedy skilled short-term reminiscence loss and “mind fog” he mentioned was attributable to a parasitic worm that entered his mind and died.
Kennedy has typically referenced the mind worm episode for comedic impact at marketing campaign occasions and in interviews because it was first reported by The New York Occasions in Could. He has beforehand mentioned he believes he contracted the parasite from consuming undercooked meat.
‘All people thought, ‘That’s an amazing thought”
Within the video Kennedy revealed on his X account Sunday, Kennedy tells actress Roseanne Barr about touring via New York’s Hudson Valley to go hawking and coming throughout a “younger bear” that had been hit and killed by one other driver. He says within the video he determined to place the lifeless bear in his automotive.
“I pulled over and I picked up the bear and put him at the back of my van as a result of I used to be gonna pores and skin the bear,” he mentioned on the video. “It was in superb situation and I used to be gonna put the meat in my fridge.”
Kennedy referenced the method New York has for somebody to lawfully possess a bear carcass, in the event that they acquire a allow referred to as a “tag.”
Kennedy then tells Barr he spent the day hawking earlier than driving to New York Metropolis for a dinner — with the bear nonetheless in his automotive. On the finish of the dinner, Kennedy mentioned, he needed to go to the airport and couldn’t take the bear again to his residence. He mentioned he broached to mates the concept of taking the bear to Central Park and making it seem as if a biker had hit it.
“I had an previous bike in my automotive that someone had requested me to do away with and I mentioned, ‘Let’s go put the bear in Central Park and we’ll make it appear to be he obtained hit by a motorcycle,’” Kennedy says within the video, prompting laughs from Barr and others within the room not seen within the video. “All people thought, ‘That’s an amazing thought.’ So we did that and we thought it might be amusing for whoever discovered it or one thing.”
Kennedy mentioned the media protection “frightened” him as a result of he’d left behind fingerprints and urged he was not blamed for the incident on the time.
“Fortunately, the story died down after some time and it stayed lifeless for a decade. The New Yorker someway came upon about it, they usually simply — they’re gonna do a giant article on me. … So that they requested me, the fact-checkers,” he mentioned.
New Yorker article comes as RFK marketing campaign falters
The journal additionally spoke to Kennedy’s marketing campaign supervisor and daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, who shared particulars of his assembly with former President Donald Trump through the Republican Nationwide Conference in Milwaukee final month. Fox Kennedy informed the journal Trump urged to Kennedy he drop out of the race in trade for a place in his administration if he wins.
“They mentioned, ‘You understand, we all know that you simply take extra from us than you are taking from Biden,’ she informed the journal, and mentioned Trump and his workforce requested Kennedy, ‘Is there one thing that you’d need to do?’” Fox Kennedy reiterated that Kennedy is open to serving in a future Trump administration, and known as the concept of Kennedy probably being nominated as secretary of Well being and Human Companies “an extremely fascinating one.”
Fox Kennedy additionally informed the journal she believes Kennedy has clear paths to victory in November and mentioned the marketing campaign will give attention to Democrats in historically Republican states and Republicans in historically Democratic states. She additionally informed the New Yorker she believes Kennedy can grow to be president by means of a contingent election if no candidate receives 270 electoral votes.
The wide-ranging article – which additionally particulars Kennedy’s historical past with drug dependancy, his earlier marriages and infidelity, and his relationship to his household – comes at a second by which the Kennedy marketing campaign is struggling to seek out its footing as Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris seem like solidifying their assist within the remaining months earlier than November’s election. In a Quinnipiac nationwide ballot of registered voters launched final month, Kennedy obtained 8% assist, trailing Trump’s 44% and President Joe Biden, who was nonetheless operating on the time of the ballot, at 39%.
Kennedy’s marketing campaign additionally continues to battle with fundraising after pulling in $5.3 million in June and spending greater than $6.2 million, in accordance with federal marketing campaign finance data. Final month, the marketing campaign established a joint fundraising committee with the Libertarian Celebration to assist increase fundraising.
Kennedy has scaled again his marketing campaign occasions in latest weeks as his marketing campaign says it’s centered on assembly poll entry deadlines in states across the nation. He hasn’t hosted an in-person marketing campaign occasion in over a month. Kennedy is anticipated to seem in court docket this week in New York, the place he’ll testify in protection of his marketing campaign’s poll petition within the state.
This story and headline have been up to date with new developments.