Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent presidential candidate, won’t face legal consequences for his 2014 prank of dumping a black bear cub’s carcass in Central Park due to it being beyond the statute of limitations for any crime or violation. Legal experts and state wildlife officials claim that no crime under New York law would apply to Kennedy’s actions, which involved stumbling over the carcass and deciding to skin it for meat before ultimately opting with his drunken friends’ scheme to dump it in Central Park and make it look like a bicycle accident. While environmental lawyer James Periconi acknowledged that Kennedy violated recommended procedures for handling dead wildlife, he could not find any violations of the New York environmental conservation law that Mr. Kennedy may have committed. The mutilated bear cub was found in October 2014 by two women walking their dogs near the Seventh Regiment Civil War memorial near West 69th Street and West Drive, but no one suspected a Kennedy family scion as the culprit. Even one of RFK Jr.’s cousins wrote about the mystery bear for the New York Times, not knowing her relative was behind it. Kennedy finally revealed his role in the bruin brouhaha in a video with comedian Roseanne Barr designed to preempt a brewing story by the New Yorker. The prank prompted an investigation by state Department of Environmental Conservation officials, who concluded that the cub died from blunt-force trauma consistent with a high-speed collision. The investigation was closed later that year due to lack of sufficient evidence to determine if violations occurred, and Kennedy is now beyond the statute of limitations for any potential charges.
