On Wednesday, 56 year old North Charleston resident David Tant was arrested and is facing 68 charges ranging from animal fighting to assault and battery with intent to kill after authorities found 47 dogs, caged treadmills and armed booby traps at his property.�
When Charleston County sheriff's deputies arrived at the 11 acres Wednesday, they found dozens of pit bulls. Some were caged and hidden from view by tall grass while others were in surrounding woods, tethered to the ground with heavy chains, deputies said.
Authorities said they found the dogfighting operation on rural property in Charleston County after a man on a surveying crew suffered pellet wounds from a gun rigged to keep people away.
David Tant declined to comment during a hearing Thursday, and his attorney said it was too soon to talk about the merits of the case.
Humane Society investigators and member of the attorney general's dogfighting task force said authorities feel they found one of the nation's top dog fighters.
"For years, he has been what they refer to in the business as a 'dog man,' the upper echelon of dog fighters," Steve Stephenson said. "He is a recognized referee of dog fights, and he had a grand champion, which means a dog that won five fights. He's probably made a mint from selling puppies of that dog."
Tant, described as a burly man with bushy white hair, appeared at the hearing in overalls and a T-shirt. His lawyer, Mike Bosnak, said Tant's property is clearly marked with "No trespassing" signs, and he had told surveyors the day before that they were not welcome on his land. Bosnak said Tant had previous problems with thefts on the property.
Detectives also searched Tant's home and found evidence tying him to dog fighting, said sheriff's Capt. Dana Valentine, but she would not discuss specifics.
When surveyor Steven Baker tried to get a closer look at barking dogs Wednesday, he struck a 66-foot trip wire and was blasted with birdshot. He was struck in the chest and leg. He was treated and released from the hospital. Investigators said the device was rigged to keep intruders away from Tant's breeding facility.
The dogfighting task force, the attorney general's office, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are assisting with the investigation. Case UpdatesDavid Tant, accused of breeding and training dogs for underground fights will spend the next 30 years of his life in a cage.
David Tant, labeled by prosecutors as the No. 2 breeder of fighting pit bulls, submitted a guilty plea Monday two days into his jury trial.
Tant faced 41 charges of criminal animal fighting and one charge of assault and battery with intent to kill. Many of these charges were dismissed as part of his guilty plea, and the most potentially serious � one count of assault and battery with intent to kill � was reduced to assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature.
While the final sentence was a small portion of the 205 years faced by Tant. He received a total of 30 years in prison � 10 for creating the booby trap that injured the surveyor, 20 for four counts of criminal animal fighting. | Source: indexjournal.com
Update posted on Nov 23, 2004 - 7:46AM |
A jury was selected Monday evening to hear the case.
During a break in court, Tant slipped inside the courthouse while walking down the stairs to the first floor.
He was transported by ambulance to Self Regional Hospital, but the extent of his injuries was not known.
"Mr. Tant had an accident on the steps," Judge Wyatt Saunders told the court around 3 p.m. "No one knows at this point if he was injured."
"I understand he's going to be admitted to a hospital," said Assistant Attorney General William Frick. "We don't know what his injuries are, or if he's going to be held overnight. It will be up to the judge if the case will continue or be postponed."
Greenwood County deputies have been assigned to guard Tant at the hospital.
Tant faces 41 charges of criminal animal fighting and one charge of assault and battery with intent to kill. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for the assault charge, and 205 years and $205,000 in fines for criminal animal fighting.
The animal fighting charges stem from discoveries made by deputies on Tant's property during the investigation of the trip-wire injury. He faces one charge of criminal animal fighting for each of the 41 pit bull dogs found on his land.
State prosecutors allege that Tant is the nation's No. 2 breeder of pit bulls, the primary dog used in animal fighting. Tant denies any wrongdoing, but said Tuesday he agreed to be questioned in a 2001 federal Grand Jury investigation of illegal dogfights in Virginia.
In exchange for his testimony in that investigation, he received immunity from the U.S. Department of Justice for offenses that took place prior to the 2001 investigation. His attorney argued Tuesday that this immunity extended into evidence collected by the S.C. Attorney General's Office for this case. Many of the items collected by investigators on his property were in storage and had not been used in years.
Prosecutors were not barred from trying to enter dated evidence in the trial, but it is expected each item will be ruled upon on a case-by-case basis, Frick said.
Testimony by Tant in the 2001 federal investigation has not been sought by prosecutors for use in the trial, he said.
Pretrial motions and hearings have dominated much of the activity in court this week as defense attorney Dale Cobb has sought to have interviews with Tant and other evidence barred from use in the trial.
Cobb was expected to argue Tuesday that the criminal animal fighting law is unconstitutional. When Tant was injured, the jury had yet to hear even opening arguments in the trial.
The case against Tant is being used as a proving ground for a dog fighting task force created by S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster's office, which has received support from animal welfare groups offering to train and
partially fund investigations. | Source: Index-Joural - Nov 17, 2004
Update posted on Nov 18, 2004 - 11:10PM |
A judge on Wednesday awarded custody of more than 50 pit bulls to the Charleston County Sheriff's Office after more than six hours of testimony centering on whether their owner, David Tant of North Charleston , used the dogs in the illegal and vicious world of dog fighting or bred them for that purpose.
Tant's attorneys said he was breeding pit bulls, which is not illegal. They said he had no control over what someone might do with them after a sale.
...
In a dramatic presentation, county attorney Tom Lynn pulled heavy chains from a box and placed them on the witness stand. The chains were said to weigh nearly 30 pounds for building strength in the dogs as they lugged them around.
During testimony, Carlson said the chains looked heavy enough to pull a bus.
Other evidence introduced Wednesday included dozens of firearms, "break sticks" used to pry apart fighting dogs and an audio tape said to contain a recording of a telephone call between Tant and another suspected dog fighter. Senn said the other man wanted to know how one of Tant's dogs was doing after a recent fight.
The dog died two days later, she said.
Authorities also discovered a suspected fighting pit and so-called "rape box" tucked in the woods on Tant's 11-acre property.
The wooden box is used to restrain a female dog so it can be mounted by a male. Veterinarians testifying for each side disagreed on how common such devices are in dog breeding.
Read more: Update posted on Apr 22, 2004 - 6:31AM |
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