Okla-homey
1/30/2007, 09:37 AM
....much to my chagrin.
Anyhoo, some fighting rooster afficionados got some big problems because they thought it was all cool and stuff if the cockfights were on Indian land. They were wrong. Now, they have federal convictions on their records and face stiff (no pun intended) fines.
Four men convicted as cockfight spectators By SUSAN HYLTON World Staff Writer
1/30/2007
They thought they had found a loophole in state law because the fight was on Indian land, a prosecutor says.
LAWTON -- Four men have been convicted for being spectators at a cockfight on Indian land in Caddo County.
The defendants are among the last of 75 people who were charged in federal court with cockfighting offenses after a July 22 raid at a cockfighting facility south of Carnegie.
Convicted after a three-day trial last week were Clay McHone, 47, of Harrah; Carl "Hank" Bardsher, 46, of Lawton; Donald Underwood, 71, of Foster; and Robert Langford, 54, of Wichita Falls, Texas. The convictions are misdemeanors, punishable by as much as a year in jail and/or a $100,000 fine.
McHone also was charged with transporting, delivering, sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal-fighting venue, but jurors in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma could not reach a unanimous decision on the charge.
The office of Sheldon Sperling, U.S. attorney for the Muskogee-based Eastern District of Oklahoma, prosecuted the case in Lawton after Western District prosecutors recused themselves because they were acquainted with a former deputy U.S. marshal who was a defendant.
Sperling said he thought it was evident that the defendants had thought they found a loophole in the law by holding the event on an Indian trust allotment.
"Indian Country is not a no-man's land," he said. "Major crimes may be prosecuted pursuant to federal law in Indian Country, and other felonies and misdemeanors may be assimilated in Indian Country based on state law."
State Question 687, approved by voters in November 2002, made holding cockfights in Oklahoma a felony and attending a cockfighting event a misdemeanor. Sperling also noted that federal law outlaws animal fighting.
More than 70 people were prosecuted for attending the cockfight; 11 of them were charged with transporting animals for an animal fight.
The investigation resulted in felony convictions for only two defendants. Shan Gachot, 42 -- who originally was indicted on charges that he provided a pit for cockfighting and sponsored and exhibited fighting cocks that were transported across state lines -- entered a guilty plea on a charge of conducting an illegal gambling business.
Michael Daugherty pleaded guilty to sponsoring and exhibiting fighting cocks transported in interstate commerce, a felony, and to providing a pit for cockfighting, a misdemeanor punishable by as much as a year in prison and/or a $100,000 fine.
Gachot and Daugherty await sentencing. Sperling said officers seized several thousand dollars in cash and a collection of cockfighting paraphernalia and confiscated membership cards issued by the facility, the Kiowa Association for the Preservation of Rural and Cultural Lifestyles:eek: , the Oklahoma Game Breeders Association and out-of-state cockfighting pits.
All of the animals were euthanized at the scene after a federal court order.
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Susan Hylton 581-8381
[email protected]
Anyhoo, some fighting rooster afficionados got some big problems because they thought it was all cool and stuff if the cockfights were on Indian land. They were wrong. Now, they have federal convictions on their records and face stiff (no pun intended) fines.
Four men convicted as cockfight spectators By SUSAN HYLTON World Staff Writer
1/30/2007
They thought they had found a loophole in state law because the fight was on Indian land, a prosecutor says.
LAWTON -- Four men have been convicted for being spectators at a cockfight on Indian land in Caddo County.
The defendants are among the last of 75 people who were charged in federal court with cockfighting offenses after a July 22 raid at a cockfighting facility south of Carnegie.
Convicted after a three-day trial last week were Clay McHone, 47, of Harrah; Carl "Hank" Bardsher, 46, of Lawton; Donald Underwood, 71, of Foster; and Robert Langford, 54, of Wichita Falls, Texas. The convictions are misdemeanors, punishable by as much as a year in jail and/or a $100,000 fine.
McHone also was charged with transporting, delivering, sponsoring or exhibiting an animal in an animal-fighting venue, but jurors in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma could not reach a unanimous decision on the charge.
The office of Sheldon Sperling, U.S. attorney for the Muskogee-based Eastern District of Oklahoma, prosecuted the case in Lawton after Western District prosecutors recused themselves because they were acquainted with a former deputy U.S. marshal who was a defendant.
Sperling said he thought it was evident that the defendants had thought they found a loophole in the law by holding the event on an Indian trust allotment.
"Indian Country is not a no-man's land," he said. "Major crimes may be prosecuted pursuant to federal law in Indian Country, and other felonies and misdemeanors may be assimilated in Indian Country based on state law."
State Question 687, approved by voters in November 2002, made holding cockfights in Oklahoma a felony and attending a cockfighting event a misdemeanor. Sperling also noted that federal law outlaws animal fighting.
More than 70 people were prosecuted for attending the cockfight; 11 of them were charged with transporting animals for an animal fight.
The investigation resulted in felony convictions for only two defendants. Shan Gachot, 42 -- who originally was indicted on charges that he provided a pit for cockfighting and sponsored and exhibited fighting cocks that were transported across state lines -- entered a guilty plea on a charge of conducting an illegal gambling business.
Michael Daugherty pleaded guilty to sponsoring and exhibiting fighting cocks transported in interstate commerce, a felony, and to providing a pit for cockfighting, a misdemeanor punishable by as much as a year in prison and/or a $100,000 fine.
Gachot and Daugherty await sentencing. Sperling said officers seized several thousand dollars in cash and a collection of cockfighting paraphernalia and confiscated membership cards issued by the facility, the Kiowa Association for the Preservation of Rural and Cultural Lifestyles:eek: , the Oklahoma Game Breeders Association and out-of-state cockfighting pits.
All of the animals were euthanized at the scene after a federal court order.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Susan Hylton 581-8381
[email protected]