BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) - Three Montana men each face up to a year in prison on charges that two of them captured and killed an injured golden eagle then sold it to the third man for $100, authorities announced Tuesday.

Curtis Foster, 58, Glenn Reum, 57, and Doug Standing Rock, 64, were released on special conditions after pleading not guilty in an arraignment before U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Strong in Great Falls.
The defendants face charges of violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty. In addition to prison time, they could be fined up to $15,000 each if found guilty.

An affidavit filed by federal prosecutors alleges that Foster and Reum, both of Pablo, picked up the injured eagle last year after seeing it along a highway near Lincoln.

They packed the injured animal into a cooler then took it to the Budget Inn Motel in Havre, where the pair allegedly kept it in a bathtub for a week while they discussed what to do with it.

After first attempting to kill the bird by strangling it with a bungee cord, Reum killed it by hitting it in the head with a hammer, according to the affidavit signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Betley.

In early 2011, Foster sold the dead bird to Standing Rock, who lives in Box Elder on the Rocky Boy's Indian Reservation. Foster wanted the eagle for ceremonial purposes, prosecutors allege.

Attempts by The Associated Press to locate the suspects were unsuccessful Tuesday.

According to prosecutors, Standing Rock told a special agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that he knew it was illegal to buy and sell eagles and acknowledged that he did not have a permit for the animal. The bird had been buried but Standing Rock provided its wings to the agent.