- Jan 28, 2007
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Man arrested after yearlong investigation into cockfighting
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - A yearlong investigation into cockfighting in northwestern Indiana led to the arrest of a man who videotaped fights between roosters and framed photos of bloody birds after a fight, police said.
Randall Todd Martin, 45, of rural Lake County, was charged Thursday with staging and promoting an animal fight. His bond was set at $75,000 and he faces a maximum prison term of nine years.
Lake County police Detective Michelle Weaver seized 71 live roosters and hens from the property. An informant told Weaver that Martin filmed and photographed the fights, framing some of the pictures and putting others in photo albums.
Veterinarian Rex Bailey examined the birds and said they had abrasions, lacerations and blood on their wings, neck and body feathers. They exhibited aggression toward each other and many of their beaks had been filed to a sharp point, he said.
The Lake County tactical team contacted Martin's wife, Elizabeth Martin, who said she and her husband don't raise roosters and don't host cockfights.
"If there are any gaffs, they are not mine or my husband's," she said. "If they find any, they could be anybody's."
Police say the couple's daughter, Erika Martin, told them her father raised the chickens for eggs.
Weaver said in a probable cause affidavit that music would be played from Martin's truck during cockfights so that neighbors could not hear screeches coming from his backyard. Weaver said she found in the Martin house 23 copies of "The Gamecock" magazine and 27 copies of "Grit and Steel Magazine," a publication devoted to gamefowl.
I am surprised that they had an investigation that lasted that long. I had no idea this still went on.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - A yearlong investigation into cockfighting in northwestern Indiana led to the arrest of a man who videotaped fights between roosters and framed photos of bloody birds after a fight, police said.
Randall Todd Martin, 45, of rural Lake County, was charged Thursday with staging and promoting an animal fight. His bond was set at $75,000 and he faces a maximum prison term of nine years.
Lake County police Detective Michelle Weaver seized 71 live roosters and hens from the property. An informant told Weaver that Martin filmed and photographed the fights, framing some of the pictures and putting others in photo albums.
Veterinarian Rex Bailey examined the birds and said they had abrasions, lacerations and blood on their wings, neck and body feathers. They exhibited aggression toward each other and many of their beaks had been filed to a sharp point, he said.
The Lake County tactical team contacted Martin's wife, Elizabeth Martin, who said she and her husband don't raise roosters and don't host cockfights.
"If there are any gaffs, they are not mine or my husband's," she said. "If they find any, they could be anybody's."
Police say the couple's daughter, Erika Martin, told them her father raised the chickens for eggs.
Weaver said in a probable cause affidavit that music would be played from Martin's truck during cockfights so that neighbors could not hear screeches coming from his backyard. Weaver said she found in the Martin house 23 copies of "The Gamecock" magazine and 27 copies of "Grit and Steel Magazine," a publication devoted to gamefowl.
I am surprised that they had an investigation that lasted that long. I had no idea this still went on.
