Case Details

Cockfighting - 100 birds seized, 28 more dead
Elm Mott, TX (US)

Date: Apr 9, 2006
County: McLennan
Local Map: available
Disposition: Alleged

Alleged:

  • Jose Salinas Rodriguez - Convicted
  • Adrian Nunez Valdez
  • Michael Joseph Ruiz
  • Rogelio Luis Nava

    Upcoming Court Dates:
  • Jan 9, 2007: Rodriguez�s sentencing
  • Jan 29, 2007: Valdez trial
  • Jan 29, 2007: Nava trial

  • Case ID: 9920
    Classification: Fighting
    Animal: chicken
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    When McLennan County Sheriff�s deputies arrived on Palm Sunday afternoon in the tiny Central Texas community of Elm Mott, a woman they presumed was about to open a gate for them hopped over it instead, locked it behind her and ran off into a thicket yelling, �Policia, policia.�

    As officers approached a barn, they saw about 100 people scatter into the woods, 56 cars and trucks in a field, about 100 live roosters and a trailer filled with at least 28 dead roosters.

    McLennan County Sheriff Larry Lynch said the April 9 incident is the first McLennan County cockfight reported to his office in at least three years.

    �This was a large, well-organized event,� Lynch said. �People had come from all around the state to this deal.�

    Four of those who fled into the woods reportedly acknowledged bringing fighting roosters to the barn off Mazanec Road, officials said. They were arrested on animal cruelty charges.

    On Oct 30, Jose Salinas Rodriguez, 50, of Palmer, Texas, pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, a state-jail felony. Prosecutor Charissa Sloan recommended Rodriguez be placed on felony probation for three years and fined $500.

    Rodriguez will be sentenced Jan. 9 by either Matt Johnson or Scott Peterson, candidates to succeed retiring 54th State District Judge George Allen.

    Rodriguez�s attorney, Paul Flores, declined comment after his plea.

    Adrian Nunez Valdez, 34, Michael Joseph Ruiz, 36, and Rogelio Luis Nava, 22, also were charged in the April 9 cockfight. Valdez is set for trial Jan. 29, Ruiz is set for trial Dec. 4 and Nava is set Jan. 29.

    Waco attorney Ron Moody, who represents Valdez and Ruiz, said Monday he is seeking to have evidence seized during the sheriff�s office raid suppressed.

    �I don�t believe that those officers had any probable cause to go out there in the first place,� Moody said.

    Sheriff Lynch said his office got a phone tip from an area resident who said she suspected a large cockfight was taking place.

    After the crowd scattered, deputies found scales for weighing in the feathery combatants, a large fighting ring covered in blood and feathers, a scoreboard, incubators and at least 28 dead roosters whose bodies were thrown in a trailer, Sloan said.

    One of the men who was leasing the property reportedly told deputies that cockfighting was a �family tradition,� Sloan said.

    As sheriff�s deputies were leaving the property in Elm Mott later that night, they saw a number of people walking along rural roadways. Many of their faces were covered in scratches where they apparently had been running through the woods earlier that evening, Chief Deputy Randy Plemons said.

    Immensely popular throughout Central and South America, cockfighting is illegal throughout the United States with the exceptions of New Mexico and Louisiana. Oklahoma was the last state to outlaw cockfighting, and that came only after a bitter fight that was resolved by the state�s supreme court.

    A bill to make the interstate and foreign movement of fighting animals a felony passed the U.S. Senate this year, gained 324 co-sponsors in the House, yet was held up by U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

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    References

    Waco Tribune

    « TX State Animal Cruelty Map



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