Dog-fighting - 12 dogs seized West Palm Beach, FL (US) Incident Date: Friday, Jul 14, 2000 County: Palm Beach Local Map: available Disposition: Convicted Charges: Misdemeanor Abusers/Suspects: » Alton Harrell » Reginald D. Mickins » Frank Huggins » Steve Rousseau » Rodney Rousseau

Case ID: 6062 Classification: Fighting Animal: dog (pit-bull) View more cases in FL (US) Login to Watch this Case

In July 2000, Broward County Sheriff's officers, responding to tips, obtained a search warrant and broke down the doors of a building in back of a duplex on Plumosa Street in West Palm Beach.

More than 60 spectators were found, including two Corrections deputies, cheering on two pit bulls ripping into each other.

According to the incident report, �The walls of the arena were approximately two feet high with carpet on the ground. There was blood splattered all over the walls and carpeted floor.�

Officers also found large amounts of money piled up outside the arena and wads of cash on the spectators.

All told, sheriff�s deputies seized more than $85,000, 12 pit bulls and some illegal drugs and arrested 60 people, charging them with animal cruelty and animal fighting. The organizers of the fight and the main property owners were reportedly Steve and Rodney Rousseau, Frank Huggins, as well as other associates.

65 people were apprehended in the West Palm Beach raid, of whom 53 were charged only with watching a dog fight, a misdemeanor. Among them were Palm Beach County Corrections deputies Reginald Mickins and Alton Harrell.

Two of the seized pit bulls were stolen a few days later right out of the county�s animal-control shelter after a suspect cut through a kennel fence. �Obviously it was done by someone who knew something about fighting pit bulls,� PBSO spokesman Paul Miller said at the time.

Reginald Mickins, 35, and Alton Harrell, 34, were charged with attending an organized dogfight. They were fired, but reinstated after an internal review board recommended that they keep their jobs.

Both pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of attending a dogfight and were sentenced to a year of probation, community service and had to pay a fine to an animal-rights organization.

The judge threw out the most serious charges against the Rousseau family and another occupant because of an arcane technicality in Florida law that spurred the legislature to make reforms. Florida law bars search warrants in animal-cruelty cases from being served at night � when most animal-fighting takes place � unless the time was specifically approved by a judge. The judicially approved warrant itself contained the time of the proposed search, according to county officials, but the supporting affidavit didn�t, so the defense attorney later convinced a judge to throw out almost all the felony charges.

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References

	Palm Beach Post - September 17, 2003
	City Link Magazine - June 4, 2003

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