High-Profile City Officials Facing Criminal Charges for Attending Illegal Cockfighting Ring in Cherokee Co.

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In Cherokee County, Texas, arrests were made and citations were issued to dozens of people accused of being present in an illegal cockfighting ring. The illegal cockfighting ring was raided by the police and the Cherokee County sheriff’s deputies last May.

Among those facing criminal charges are high-profile city officials. During the raid, the authorities arrested one person and wrote about 60 other citations. Nine warrants are also currently underway.

Under Texas law, cockfighting is a misdemeanor punishable by fines and jail time depending on the circumstances.

Cherokee County Sheriff Brent Dickson said that some of the attendees in the illegal cockfight were high-profile city officials. “One of the individuals we cited a citation to was a commissioner out of Morris County and that was for him being here at the cockfight. We’re working on a warrant on an ex-commissioner out of Houston County and hope to have him in custody over the next several weeks,” he said. According to the sheriff, among those who received a citation was Todd Freeman, the Morris County commissioner.

97 roosters were seized from the illegal cockfighting ring. The county says that they had to euthanize the roosters to protect the county’s animal health. “We were ordered by the judge to put down all of the roosters,” Dickson said.

The sheriff anticipates nine additional warrants will be issued over the next few weeks as the investigation continues.

“We hope to have the others in jail before August the 1st and start moving towards the prosecution side of it,” Dickson added.

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