City cites promoter of Hunting Bambi paintball

City officials plan to prosecute the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the Hunting for Bambi video on a charge of doing business without a license.

Michael Burdick was issued a misdemeanor citation Thursday evening after city investigators said they determined he isn't listed on the license for the business that he runs and has continuously promoted in the media over the past two weeks.

"We're going to prosecute him to the full extent the city can, and do everything we can to make sure he doesn't do any business in the city from this point forward," an angry Mayor Oscar Goodman said Friday. "We have plenty of jail space available in Las Vegas."

The maximum penalty for a misdemeanor is a $1,000 fine or six months in jail.

City officials investigated Burdick's claims that he was selling, for between $5,000 and $10,000, the opportunity to use paintball guns to hunt nude women.

Goodman and other city officials said Thursday they had determined through interviews with Burdick and others that his claims were a hoax to stimulate sales of videos in which "hunters" shoot paintballs at nude women.

Goodman appeared ready at that time to end the city's inquiry.

But after Burdick continued to state in the media that the hunts were real and for sale, city officials decided to pursue licensing irregularities discovered in their investigation.

"He played the media first, then he played me," Goodman said. "Now I'm going to play him a little bit."

Burdick admitted, in a call to the mayor's office Thursday, that he intended to lie about the hunts during an appearance on the cable news network MSNBC that afternoon, city spokeswoman Elaine Sanchez said.

Sanchez quoted Burdick as saying he planned to say the hunts were not a hoax. "I hope that's OK with the mayor," she said he told her.

In his appearance on Keith Olbermann's "Countdown" program on MSNBC, Burdick stuck by his claim.

Burdick didn't return a call for comment Friday and previously has declined to talk to the Review-Journal.

Burdick's business began receiving attention two weeks ago, when KLAS-TV, Channel 8 ran a feature story about Hunting for Bambi that appeared to show a local man shooting a paintball gun at nude women. Burdick claimed he was selling the hunts to men from as far away as Germany.

Phone calls to the Channel 8 reporter, LuAnne Sorrell, and the station's news director have not been returned.

Almost immediately after the story ran, television outlets across the country, and even some around the world, latched onto the story.

Women's groups criticized the endeavor as misogynistic and said it would encourage violence against women.

Then local news outlets began to investigate. Burdick, it turned out, was not listed on the business license. He admitted to reporters that the Hunting for Bambi video was not real, but still insisted that the hunts were.

"These are absolutely real," he told the Review-Journal on July 16.

Soon, city officials began to investigate, and, they said, Burdick fessed up: The whole thing was made up to reap the benefits of free media attention. The hunts were not real, he told officials, and no one had ever been shot with a paintball gun.

"He indicated this was a fraud and a scam and he was just attempting to get publicity to sell videotapes," Goodman said. "Thereafter, we heard he was going to go on national TV once again and say, in fact, hunts are taking place. ...

"You can't have it both ways. You're a liar in one of the two ways."

Lakana Campbell, who Burdick has said is his fiancee, appears on the business license as the sole owner of Real Men Outdoor Productions Inc. City officials said investigators went to the address on the business license and determined Campbell wasn't "in charge of the business operation."

During an earlier visit by investigators, Burdick, who is listed as an officer in a corporate filing with the state, was at the business and told investigators he was responsible for its operations, according to officials.

Officials also noted that Real Men Outdoor's license indicates the business will sell "hunting videos." No mention is made of paintball "hunts" or the sale of the other merchandise offered on the company's Web site.

"Her (Campbell's) license is only to sell videos," City Finance Director Mark Vincent said. "Neither she nor he (Burdick) are licensed to conduct hunts.

Vincent said it's not illegal to submit an incomplete business license, but that the city may seek to revoke the license through an administrative hearing.

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