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Case #2810 Rating: 2.8 out of 5
Dog-fighting - 21 dogs seized
Vancouver, WA (US)Incident Date: Tuesday, Oct 12, 2004
County: Clark
Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted
Defendant/Suspect: Eduardo Jose Ribaya
Case Updates: 10 update(s) available
Police confiscated 21 pit bulls, 16 adults and five puppies, along with items related to dog fighting when they served their search warrant at 8612 N.W. Lower River Road on Tuesday morning. Sgt. John Chapman of the Vancouver Police Department's violent crime unit said Thursday that police still haven't questioned Eduardo Jose Ribaya, 52, who has lived at the Lower River Road property for about three years.
Police seized dog-fighting rules, veterinary supplies and a freshly carved "breaking stick" for prying open jaws during canine battles when they raided a Vancouver ranch earlier this week.
A list of potentially incriminating items was part of legal papers filed Thursday in Clark County District Court. Also filed was an affidavit that Vancouver Detective Lawrence Zapata provided to obtain a search warrant.
Ribaya has past convictions for organizing dogfights in the San Francisco Bay area, according to newspaper reports.
Animal advocates in the Bay area are familiar with Ribaya and say he was a central figure in organizing a high-stakes dog-fighting competition in a San Francisco warehouse. Police reportedly made more than 75 arrests and seized about $50,000 in cash when they raided the warehouse in 1995.
Vancouver police discovered records from Ribaya's previous arrest for dog fighting when they searched the Lower River Road property.
They also seized compact disks containing information on breeding, training and fighting dogs, plus accounts of battles between specific dogs.
Kim Kapp, police spokeswoman, still was not ready to characterize Ribaya as a suspect or to say if police were searching for him.
"He is a person associated with this investigation," Kapp said Thursday night. "Detectives would like to speak with him."
Under state law, entering a dog into a fight is a felony punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Possessing or training animals for fights, as well as watching animal fights, are misdemeanors punishable by up to one year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
The Lower River Road property is owned by the Port of Portland and leased to Holdner Farms, which raises organic beef there. Holdner Farms subleases one of two homes on the property to Ribaya and gives him access to the barn, garages and other buildings.
Clark County animal-control officials received their first complaint in April 2003 about potential animal cruelty at the Lower River Road property.
According to Zapata's affidavit, Carrie Martin, a county animal-control officer, questioned Ribaya about his activities last year.
"Officer Martin confronted Ed Ribaya about her suspicions that he was fighting pit bulls on his property," Zapata wrote. "She informed him that it is a crime to fight dogs and that he should get out of the dog-fighting business, after which Ed Ribaya responded by stating it's 'big money.' "
Animal-control officials intensified their interest after receiving an anonymous phone tip on Aug. 19 of this year.
Zapata's affidavit said animal-control officers went to the property but found no one home.
As they walked along the outside fence, they saw 19 chained pit bulls, a litter of at least 10 rabbits and a dog treadmill, the affidavit says.
Live rabbits often are used as bait to train pit bulls, a technique known as "blooding" where the dog mauls and kills another animal as a way to encourage aggression. Dog treadmills, smaller versions of those found in athletic clubs, are used to build endurance for fights that can last an hour or longer.
Animal-control officers saw an area lined by hay bales and other items, 14 to 16 feet square, that could have been used for staging dogfights, according to the affidavit. They also spotted four or five pit bulls with scarring, a potential indicator of past fights, the affidavit says.
According to court papers, police carted off a number of items Tuesday that could be used to build a case against Ribaya, including:
* Assorted wound medications and syringes, along with possible suturing materials.
* Multiple bottles of vitamins, steroid supplements and veterinary compounds for quick recovery from heavy exertion.
* Photos of three pit bulls attacking a live boar.
* Handwritten charts showing training and feeding schedules for a dog named "Baby Girl."
Police also confiscated evidence of an indoor marijuana- growing operation, including grow lamps and marijuana remnants from a drying operation.
Case UpdatesIt’s been nearly seven months since officers responded to the rural Scappoose home of Eduardo Jose Ribaya " a twice-convicted dogfighter with a resume of brutality in California and Washington.
It doesn’t take much searching to discover that the 57-year-old Ribaya " once known as “the Pineapple Kid” in dog fighting circles " is somewhat of a celebrity in that world. The Humane Society of the United States even has their own file on the man.
So when Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputies and Columbia County Animal Control reported finding equipment on his property known to be used for training fighting dogs and marijuana plants" after being called to Ribaya’s Dike Road home on July 3 when his two pit bulls attacked a calf " it gave the appearance of an open and shut case.
At least, that is, to some locals who have questioned why Ribaya has yet to receive " if he ever does " a formal charge for either the marijuana or what is alleged to be the potential beginnings of another dogfighting operation.
When the Columbia County Board of Commissioners began hearings to determine the dogs’ fates a few months after they attacked the calf " which later died " Ribaya tried to save his dogs from euthanasia. The dogs are still in county care, but Ribaya, who is believed to now be residing in Portland, hasn’t made any more court appearances.
At the moment a Sheriff’s Office drug investigation still remains open. There is no investigation, however, to look into the apparent dogfighting equipment, which is also used by some to get dogs in shape for other, legal, purposes.
But how did we get from there to here.
Sheriff Jeff Dickerson asserts that a lack of manpower is one reason no formal charges have been brought against Ribaya, but that isn’t the only reason. His office forwarded their report about the controlled substance offense allegations to the District Attorney’s office, but it was sent back because the DA’s office didn’t feel there was enough evidence to go on. As far as the presumed dogfighting equipment, Dickerson said the items found at his home are often used for other purposes. It would be hard to prove that they were for training animals to fight, he said.
Dickerson said that if the Animal Control office were to find additional evidence of dogfighting he would move forward with an investigation.
But Animal Control Officer Roger Kadell said that would be difficult, considering he has no power to take on investigations. He thinks that things could have worked differently if officers, including himself, were aware of just how to handle a dogfighting investigation at the time. There may have been confusion about who should handle that part of the investigation, him or the Sheriff’s Office, he said.
“Dogfighting isn’t something we see in this county,” he said.
“If we knew now what we knew then, we could have done a lot differently,” he said.
When Ribaya’s name hit the newspapers a few months after the calf attack, calls started pouring in " including one from the Attorney General’s office " that pointed out Ribaya’s past history, Kadell said.
The investigation was smoldering, Kadell said, and over months it became more difficult to investigate. Now that Ribaya has moved out of Scappoose it is even more so. With him, he took the instruments that Kadell believes were for dogfighting, including a treadmill, a hanging spring line and more.
But, like Dickerson, Kadell said that resources are a huge factor. There just isn’t the amount of available officers that there once were to undertake an investigation like this. Kadell wants to ask the Sheriff to grant him the ability to investigate things like animal fighting, but that hasn’t even been discussed formally.
“We are all operating on a shoestring,” Kadell said.
Eduardo Ribaya’s history of dog fighting:
• Feb. 1995 " Ribaya is arrested, and later convicted, along with 75 others for participating in a regional dog fighting championship in San Francisco. He was alleged to have been central in organizing the event. He received three years probation.
• June 1996 " Ribaya was arrested in Oakland, Calif., for living with 39 abused pit bulls. He was charged with animal cruelty and sentenced to 16 months in prison.
• Oct. 2004 " Ribaya was arrested and later sentenced to one year in prison for animal fighting in Vancouver, Wash. Police seized 21 pit bulls and numerous pieces of dog fighting equipment.
• July 2009 " Ribaya is fined after his two pit bulls attack a calf in Scappoose. Marijuana is reported to be found on his property and an investigation is still open, but no charges have been filed. | Source: South County Spotlight - Feb 10, 2010
Update posted on Feb 24, 2010 - 3:05PM |
A serial dog fighter is suspected of being back in business but budget cuts in Columbia County may keep him from facing justice.
When deputies got a recent 9-1-1 call about pit bulls killing a calf, a deputy investigated and found evidence of dog fighting; however, when he could not find the suspect at home, the case, like many other long-term investigations got put on hold.
While county commissioners have fined Eduardo Rebaya, who they said is back in the dog-fighting business, he has not been arrested.
Police said they couldn’t devote the resources to the investigation because they have half as many deputies as they once did.
“When we lost funding, we lost virtually every person who could go sit on a house and wait for the suspect to return,” said Columbia County Sheriff Jeff Dickerson.
Rebaya was convicted of dog fighting in California and in 2004 police raided his Vancouver home. They found dog-fighting magazines, a breaking stick used to separate dogs, and a treadmill used to train them.
Police said a deputy found the same kind of equipment on Rebaya’s Scappoose property. They also said they found drugs.
Rebaya is now on parole.
But if county commissioners expect deputies to stake out his home and wait for him to come back, they’d be wrong, said Dickerson.
“Any long-term, ongoing investigation, we are hurting,” he said. “We don’t have the capability to conduct these long-term investigations.”
Dickerson said the Rebaya case is one example of what they face everyday: a shortage of deputies to investigate crimes.
Commissioner Tony Hyde said Rebaya should be in jail. He acknowledges the Sheriff Department’s cuts but said commissioners didn’t have a choice.
“I suppose we could make sure we didn’t pave any roads or don’t provide other social services everyone expects,” he said.
In Oregon it is a felony to possess a dog with the intent to fight. It is not necessary to catch them in the act of dog fighting, just prove that there was the intent to fight.
Dickerson said he only has enough deputies to respond to emergencies and follow-up on immediate investigations. The sheriff said since the county is 650 miles wide, it can take an hour for a deputy to respond to any situation. | Source: KATU.com - Sep 15, 2009
Update posted on Oct 5, 2009 - 2:58PM |
According to reports, on July 3, a Scappoose, Oregon 911 call registered the screams of a calf that had wandered into an enclosure where a convicted dog fighter had chained two pit bull dogs he wasn’t supposed to have. The dogs had done what they were bred and likely trained to do " they had attacked the calf, opening holes in its throat down to its bubbling trachea.
Last week, the Columbia County Commission used what leverage it had to send a message to the dogs’ owner, Eduardo Ribaya, and to any other dog fighters in the region.
“We felt there was enough evidence that those dogs were being raised for fighting on the site. That’s exactly what he was doing before and that’s not acceptable,” Commissioner Tony Hyde said. “We gave him every fine the law allowed.”
In the absence of a suitable foster situation, the commission ordered the dogs euthanized and ordered Ribaya to pay $1,000 in fines for each dog, plus another $1,000 in dog-boarding costs.
But with Ribaya, who has convictions in both Washington state and California for dogfighting, planning to appeal the fines and the destruction of his dogs, the outcome of the case is far from certain.
In fact, Ribaya’s attorney wrote a letter citing a recently passed state law regarding damage caused by livestock. The letter called for a determination by the state whether Randy Holdner, the calf’s owner and Ribaya’s landord, might be responsible for the value of the dogs if they’re put down.
This is despite the presence of illegal dog fighting paraphernalia that respondents found on Ribaya’s property, including a treadmill for running dogs and a jawstrengthening spring line hanging from a tree near the fence opening the calf likely wandered through.
Hyde questioned why Ribaya, who was on parole on the day the dogs tore into the calf, did not go immediately to prison for possessing fighting dogs. Or for possessing nearly a dozen well-tended marijuana plants.
There’s another pressing question in this case, said John Goodwin, Manager of Animal Fighting Issues for the Humane Society of United States, whose agency has followed Ribaya’s activities since the 1990’s. Why was Ribaya " who Tony Hyde said was arrested but released with no charges " not charged with possessing dog-fighting paraphernalia?
In Oregon it is a felony to possess a dog with the intent to fight. You don’t have to catch them in the act, you don’t have to prove that they have fought a dog recently. All you have to prove is that they have the intent to fight,” Goodwin said. “Considering this man’s past history and the fact that he had paraphernalia consistent with dog fighting I believe the authorities have enough to issue a warrant.”
The county did its best to impose strong fines but dog fighting can bring big money that makes the fines seem small by comparison. | Source: South County Spotlight - Sep 9, 2009
Update posted on Sep 11, 2009 - 2:13PM |
| Eduardo Jose Ribaya was released from Washington State Prison on July 17, 2006. He will be on parole until July 17, 2008. | Source: Washington DOC # 890971
Update posted on Mar 6, 2007 - 6:27PM |
| Ribaya was sentenced on Jan 24 to a year and two days in prison. | | Update posted on Jan 26, 2006 - 1:16AM |
A 53-year-old man will be sentenced at 1:30 p.m. Jan. 24 after pleading guilty last week to dogfighting and drug charges.
Eduardo Jose Ribaya confessed to possessing more than 40 grams of marijuana, a felony under state law.
Ribaya also admitted to possessing, owning, keeping or training two dogs, named Bojo and Dirty, with the intent of using them for animal fights, a misdemeanor at the time Ribaya was charged.
The felony charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine; the misdemeanor charges have a maximum penalty of one year and a $5,000 fine.
Ribaya, who was convicted for dogfighting in the San Francisco area a decade earlier, originally faced 16 counts of dogfighting-related charges stemming from an October 2004 raid on his rental home near Frenchman's Bar Regional Park.
Vancouver police seized 21 pit bulls, along with training logs, veterinary supplies and other items commonly associated with dogfighting.
Police were dismayed to learn that because they did not have evidence that Ribaya had actually entered a dog in a fight, he could only be charged with misdemeanors.
Last year, state lawmakers eliminated that loophole and made it a felony to own, possess, breed, train, buy and sell animals for fights.
The revised law also made it a felony to promote, organize or advertise animal fights; to transport spectators to animal fights; to act as a stakeholder for money wagered on animal fights; and to seize stray dogs or steal pets to enter into animal fights or for use as "bait" in training dogs for fights. | Source: The Columbian - January 11, 2006
Update posted on Jan 26, 2006 - 12:38AM |
Eduardo Ribaya faces multiple dog fighting charges following a nine-month-long investigation.
Investigators did not witness Ribaya fighting pit bulls, but they say there is plenty of physical evidence to press charges.
Ribaya, 52, faces 16 counts of animal fighting. One for each of his 16 pit bulls confiscated last October.
Some of his dogs had fresh scars, but prosecutors are basing their case on other physical evidence found at Ribaya's rural Vancouver home.
Investigators are certain Ribaya raised, trained and fought dogs there.
According to court documents animal control officers found a treadmill, made for dogs to improve their endurance. In the barn they claimed hay bales formed a dog fighting pit, surrounded by beer cans.
And they believe the rabbits found on his property were used to train the dogs how to chase and kill, in a method known as "blooding."
"They're used to give the taste of blood and to give the dogs the idea of the kill," Robin Iverson said.
Clackamas County Deputy Robin Iverson did not work on the Ribaya case but she did investigate the dog fighting claims against former Trail Blazer Qyntel Woods.
Woods pleaded guilty to animal abuse in a case based only on physical evidence.
"It can be done. Certainly the amount of evidence you collect at a scene is certainly going to be beneficial to your cases," Iverson said.
Ribaya's own past may also be used against him. In the 1990's he had two California convictions for dog fighting crimes. And in 2003 when an animal control officer suspected Ribaya was fighting dogs again and warned him to stop, he allegedly told her he was doing it because it's quote "big money."
In Oregon, Ribaya would face felony charges but in Washington State he can only face less serious misdemeanor charges.
But because of his case, the law is changing in Washington State. The governor is expected to sign a bill this week making cases like his felonies. | Source: KOIN - May 10, 2005
Update posted on May 10, 2005 - 6:23PM |
A pretrial hearing is scheduled Nov. 18, said City Prosecutor Josephine Townsend. Ribaya is not required to attend.
He would have to appear, though, at a Dec. 6 "mandatory pretrial," where a trial date would be set or where he could change his plea, Townsend said. | Source: Oregon Live - Nov 9, 2004
Update posted on Nov 10, 2004 - 12:38PM |
Eduardo Jose Ribaya, a Vancouver man accused of raising pit bulls for deadly dogfights, has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges.
Ribaya, 52, initially had been scheduled to appear in Clark County District Court this morning.
His attorney, Matthew Hoff of Vancouver, submitted court papers entering his not-guilty plea shortly after Josephine Townsend, Vancouver city prosecutor, last month charged Ribaya with one count of animal fighting.
Hoff's court filings also waive arraignment and demand a jury trial for his client.
The city prosecutor alleges that Ribaya owned, possessed or trained animals for fights, a gross misdemeanor under state law.
Entering a dog into a fight is a felony, but police were not able to gather enough evidence to support that charge.
The Humane Society of the United States intends to lobby the Washington Legislature to change state law so owning and training dogs for fights also are felonies.
Vancouver police searched Ribaya's home, 8612 N.W. Lower River Road, on Oct. 12 and seized 21 pit bulls: 16 adults and five puppies.
Police also confiscated assorted veterinary supplies, photos of three pit bulls attacking a live boar, a "breaking stick" for prying open canine jaws during battles and handwritten charts showing training and feeding schedules for a dog named "Baby Girl." | Source: The Co,ubmian - Nov 9, 2004
Update posted on Nov 9, 2004 - 1:16PM |
| Authorities charged Ribaya on Wednesday with possessing animal fighting equipment, a misdemeanor under Washington state law. | | Update posted on Oct 28, 2004 - 6:24PM |
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