HERMITAGE, Pa. - A Hermitage man convicted of cheating in a fishing tournament will now have a case of alleged deer poaching heard in a Mercer County Common Pleas Court.

The latest charges against Chase Cominsky were held for court after the 36-year-old waived a hearing before a district magistrate on Tuesday.  Cominsky is scheduled to appear on January 16 before Judge Ronald D. Amrhein Jr.Cominsky for formal arraignment on charges that include taking big game out of season, failure to attach a tag to big game, and lending a kill tag.

Last month a Pennsylvania Game Warden filed eight charges against Cominsky alleging that between 2013 and 2021, he harvested several white-tailed deer out of season and without a valid license.

Authorities searched Cominsky’s Keel Ridge Road home in April, seizing three mounted trophy class antlered deer heads labeled with his wife’s “kill tags”.

Although licensed, Cominsky’s wife told game officials she never killed a deer, claiming that her husband brought down the animals using guns or crossbows.

According to a criminal complaint, Cominsky’s hunting license had been suspended from 2008 through 2021 for multiple game law violations.

Cominsky made news headlines and became a target on social media a year ago after he and an Ohio man angered fellow anglers after a video circulated showing officials of a Lake Erie fishing tournament discovering that the two had put lead weights in their catch hoping to win some lucrative prizes.

Both were sentenced to ten days in jail, fined, and had their fishing licenses suspended.

In a separate case, Cominsky appeared in Mercer County Common Pleas Court earlier this month, pleading no contest to theft by deception. Sentencing is scheduled for December 14.

The charge stems from an incident earlier this year when Cominsky allegedly gave his son two phony $100 bills to spend at a bowling alley.

Cominsky’s 18-year-old son has already been placed on probation for one year after pleading guilty to theft by deception in the case.