Cockfighting
Beecher, IL (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Jun 10, 2008
County: Will
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Alleged
Alleged:
» Maximiano Torres-Velazquez
» Rafael Rojas-Muniz
Case Updates: 1 update(s) available
Warrants have been issued for two men accused of masterminding a Will County cockfighting ring.
Maximiano Torres-Velazquez, 60, and Rafael Rojas-Muniz, 29, face felony charges of animal entertainment after a raid on Torres-Velazquez's Beecher farm June 10.
Will County Animal Control found an undisclosed number of roosters it believes were being bred and trained for cockfighting during the raid, according to Will County sheriff's office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer.
Three horses that were being maltreated also were removed during the raid with Torres-Velazquez's permission, Hoffmeyer said, declining to say why officers believed the roosters were for cockfighting.
Judge Steven White signed warrants for both men's arrests June 27, court records show.
In addition to the cockfighting charges, Torres-Velazquez also faces three misdemeanor charges connected with the mistreatment of horses on his farm.
But two weeks after they were issued, the warrants have yet to be executed.
Torres-Velazquez, contacted on his isolated farm in the 3100 block of Cottage Grove Avenue on Friday, said he knew "nothing" about his impending arrest.
His son Benjamin Torres denied the family was involved in cockfighting and said he believed the case already had been settled with investigators.
"We were looking after the roosters for Rafael," he said, "He was breeding them, but not for fighting."
"All of the horses are fine," he said.
Rojas-Muniz, who lives on Chicago's North Side, could not be reached for comment Friday.
Hoffmeyer declined to comment Friday on why the warrants had not been carried out, saying, "We don't want to jeopardize the case by commenting further."
Will County Animal Control and the Illinois Department of Agriculture, which also participated in the June 10 raid, also declined to comment.
"The matter is still under investigation," a spokesman for animal control administrator Dr. Leroy Schild said.
Fighting roosters, which spar with metal spikes attached to their feet, can be worth as much as $3,000 each, previous busts have shown, while gamblers bet tens of thousands of dollars on fights.
The largest cockfighting bust in Illinois history was made by Will County sheriff's police in 2002 on a farm outside Plainfield.
As many as 1,000 gamecocks were seized in that raid.
Case UpdatesWhile violent offenders are prioritized, sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry says -- and the vast majority of warrants are for unpaid traffic tickets, petty misdemeanors and failure to attend court -- the recent case of alleged cockfighting supremo Maximiano Torres-Velazquez shows more serious investigations can also slip through the net.
When Will County Animal Control and the Illinois Department of Agriculture raided Torres-Velazquez's ramshackle Beecher farm on June 10, authorities were appalled by what they found. An undisclosed number of roosters believed to be bred and trained for a major cockfighting ring were removed from the property, as were three badly mistreated horses.
Two weeks later, Will County Judge Steven White signed a warrant for Torres-Velazquez's arrest on five counts of animal cruelty.
But for more than three months, the 60-year-old farmer continued to enjoy life as a free man, untroubled by authorities.
Torres-Velazquez wasn't on the run, and he doesn't seem to have benefited from any special political favors.
Until he was finally arrested last Monday, he simply continued to live the life of a hard-scrabble immigrant farmer on his junk-strewn farm.
He was only finally apprehended because the SouthtownStar inquired about the status of his warrant, Barry acknowledged this week.
"Unless the guy got stopped, the warrant would still be unserved," he said.
"There's nobody out there knocking on doors -- there just aren't the resources. And with the county growing and the economy going the way it is, things are only going to get worse," Barry said. | Source: The Herald News - Oct 27, 2008
Update posted on Oct 28, 2008 - 12:57AM |
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