Vick Dog Fighting story continues

[AirForcePatFan]

~PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST ~

From Norfolk VA area breed rescue (Not-Rott) group -

Sent: Tuesday, May 15, 2007 8:04 AM
Subject: Michael Vick Dog fighting

Last night on ABC's local news (WVEC - Norfolk VA) channel,

http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/stories/wvec_local_051407_vick.6c10df24.html

a local reporter tried to interview the district attorney (Commonwealth's Attorney Gerald Poindexterin) Surry County concerning the dogfighting ring at Michael Vick's residence. The district attorney was belligerent and ugly and appeared to not want to press charges against Vick. For those of you who haven't been following the news - the local police have hard evidence that Vick is heavily involved in dogfighting and had been at the property on several occasions during fights. The local police are being stonewalled by the local district attorney about pressing charges. They are so frustrated they have tried going to the federal authorities who have declined because the local district attorney hasn't acted on it yet. Several local attorneys who have experience in prosecuting dog fighting charges have contacted the district attorney to offer their assistance in prosecuting this and he won't even return their calls.

I've called the Attorney General's office and left a message asking him to look into it. His number is below, perhaps if enough of us call to complain they'll look into it. Please pass it along.

(804) 786-2071

Administrators for Surrey County VA:

Tyrone W. Franklin
County Administrator
E-Maill Address: [email protected]

John B. Edwards, Jr.
Assistant County Administrator
E-Mail Address: [email protected]

P. O. Box 65
Surry,Virginia 23883

Phone: (757) 294-5271
Fax: (757) 294-5204

County Website:

http://tinyurl.com/2c2m8e

 

[Flying Fungi]

no way does this just go away--that AG is flirting with misconduct

 

[Tunescribe]

no way does this just go away--that AG is flirting with misconduct

And the Falcons' owner is flirting with disaster. What a mess. I hope that if Vick is, indeed, guilty, his celebrity doesn't absolve him of paying the price. This will be a true litmus test for Goodell because it involves a franchise player.

 

[BelichickFan]

I hope that if Vick is, indeed, guilty, his celebrity doesn't absolve him of paying the price.

I think we all want him to get what you or I would - no less and no more; I bet Matt Schaub looks pretty good to Atlanta right now, all they have backing up Vick is Joey Harrington :bricks:

 

[PatsFanInVa]

The district attorney was belligerent and ugly and appeared to not want to press charges against Vick. For those of you who haven't been following the news - the local police have hard evidence that Vick is heavily involved in dogfighting and had been at the property on several occasions during fights. The local police are being stonewalled by the local district attorney about pressing charges.

Wow, turns out it is the size of the dog in the fight.

Incidentally - I spend some time in Williamsburg. One great Sunday morning past-time there was to take a drive down to the Surry Ferry. You hopped on it, and it took you over the river to Surry, where you stopped (almost immediately) at the Surry House restaurant, and got a bunch of reasonably priced food - great fresh bread and biscuits, ham steaks (um, but not for me,) country breakfasts, jugs of coffee, what you would expect. Lots of dusty backroads there, rural routes. Some pretty humble living, not saying that's Vick's case, but there were shacks around, there were trailer parks, and of course there were plenty of good old fashioned country people in good old fashioned country houses. And of course, some temporary transplants like me.

Who knew that within a few miles of where I ate, Vick was being born... Lawrence Taylor and Aaron Brooks came from thereabouts too, and if I remember correctly a number of other players.

It's weird... when I hear about this dogfighting ring in that penninsula, my immediate first thought is "yeah, that fits." Not defending it, just saying I can picture it. My second thought is, it makes no more or less sense than seeing a kid from an inner city still trying to prove something on the street.... but there it is. Some kids make a quick transition. Others want to claim their roots, or just can't resist them. Sometimes those roots are antithetical to a 24/7 spotlight.

Again, I'm just woolgathering, not defending. Good luck with the campaign to prosecute.

PFnV

 

[spacecrime]

that AG is flirting with misconduct

There is no requirement for a DA to act quickly. They should be delibeate, not fast. Misconduct is yielding to public pressure.

Vick has been tried and found guilty by the public, and now the public is upset because the DA is wasting time procuring and evaluating evidence.

All that is happening is turning this thing into another OJ fiasco, where it becomes impossible to get an impartial trail, pretty much guaranteeing the impossiblity of a conviction even if Vick is really guilty.

 

[Flying Fungi]

There is no requirement for a DA to act quickly. They should be delibeate, not fast. Misconduct is yielding to public pressure.

Vick has been tried and found guilty by the public, and now the public is upset because the DA is wasting time procuring and evaluating evidence.

All that is happening is turning this thing into another OJ fiasco, where it becomes impossible to get an impartial trail, pretty much guaranteeing the impossiblity of a conviction even if Vick is really guilty.

you and I are both speculating

but AG is a high profile position, and as such is vulnerable to public opinion

 

[AirForcePatFan]

Again, I'm just woolgathering, not defending. Good luck with the campaign to prosecute.

I understand... I come from a little "hick" town in Texas and it goes on there, you just don't see it, but hear about it every once in a while...

I am just deeply saddened that a football celebrity, a face of the franchise, is doing this... It's all about Michael Vick, he didn't even think about how this incident will further tarnish the pitbull name... He has given more ammo to people to automatically hate the pitbull, and sadly enough, it isn't even the dogs fault... A dog is only as good(or bad) as his/her owner wants it to be... What does/will this mean for Jade, a pitbull puppy I've been fostering who came from a cruelty case in VA? Will people look at her and think of what people like Michael Vick have done to their dog's and think the same about her? It is very sad and frustrating all around for dog owners of pitbulls and rottweilers when we hear how irresponsible people are with their dogs that further tarnish our beloved breeds...

Beautiful Jade, inside and out...

Athletic, fun, and loving

And loves PLAYING with other animals...

Thank You Michael Vick and others who fight their dogs...

 

[PatsFaninAZ]

The story linked here doesn't sound nearly as nefarious as the original post about supposed obstruction of justice.

It sounds like you have an A.G. who is doing an investigation and is sick and tired of other people telling him how to do his job or calling up to volunteer their expert services.

The guy said that he expects the investigation to wrap up in 7 to 10 days and also that he does not talk about ongoing investigations.

Why the bellyaching? If people don't like his decisions or conclusions at the end of the month, there will be plenty of time to complain.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

AirForce, beautiful animal. It's just plain sad but true history that pit bulls are bred to fight. That means their breeders have selected for characteristics that make a good fighting dog. But they are not therefore destined to fight. Yes, they're an "at risk" group in the animal world, and every now and then one just goes off on an owner. So do any dogs. And leave them in a proto-pack of say a dozen, with no food and water for 2 weeks? Rin Tin Tin and Beethoven become Tupac and Shug.

All this to say... hey, the pit bull owner who takes that animal seriously and takes on the little added responsibility, is doing both that animal and the world a service. We created them, right?

Fitting justice for Vick? A theme park called "The Michael Vick's Dog Experience," in which Vick has to live in a cage with one of the animals he's fought. Every day, some food and some water that both people and dogs can eat is shoved in the cage. But not enough for both. Let nature take its course.

Nah. Not fair to the dog.

PFnV

 

[Patsfanin Philly]

If history is precedent don't expect this DA to bring charges......


http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/dogFight1100.html
November 2000
The dogfighting
conviction was made possible by discoveries made during the drug raid.
An air search for marijuana plantations in early September nabbed
previously convicted marijuana dealer Benjamin Donald Butts, 39, of
Surry, Virginia--along with 29 allegedly mangy, malnourished adult pit
bulls and four puppies.
Hit with 33 counts of dogfighting, 33 cruelty counts, drug
charges and a charge of carrying a gun as a convicted felon, Butts on
September 6 confessed that he had organized dogfights and trained fighting
dogs.
.....................
What happened next in the Butts case, however, was unusual:
Surry County District Court Judge Larry Palmer, at request of prosecutor
Gerald G. Poindexter, released Butts' 33 dogs back into his own custody,
--though Butts may be facing life in prison.

 

[jbb9s]

I think we all want him to get what you or I would - no less and no more; I bet Matt Schaub looks pretty good to Atlanta right now, all they have backing up Vick is Joey Harrington :bricks:

Matt Schaub should have looked pretty good to ATL without any of this occuring.

 

[MoLewisrocks]

If history is precedent don't expect this DA to bring charges......


http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/dogFight1100.html
November 2000
The dogfighting
conviction was made possible by discoveries made during the drug raid.
An air search for marijuana plantations in early September nabbed
previously convicted marijuana dealer Benjamin Donald Butts, 39, of
Surry, Virginia--along with 29 allegedly mangy, malnourished adult pit
bulls and four puppies.
Hit with 33 counts of dogfighting, 33 cruelty counts, drug
charges and a charge of carrying a gun as a convicted felon, Butts on
September 6 confessed that he had organized dogfights and trained fighting
dogs.
.....................
What happened next in the Butts case, however, was unusual:
Surry County District Court Judge Larry Palmer, at request of prosecutor
Gerald G. Poindexter, released Butts' 33 dogs back into his own custody,
--though Butts may be facing life in prison.

Well the one difference here is that Michael Vick is no Benjamin Donald Butts, there is exponentially more attention being paid to what Poindexter does this time around. But it kinda makes you wonder what Poindexter does for kicks in his free time, don't it....

Who knows, maybe something really good will come of all this and Surry County will get a judicial housecleaning and kick in the ass into the 21st century with the rest of us in the process.

 

[BJ_McWild]

I was talking to guy from that area and he says it's there may be corruption inside the government down in Virginia. He says, 'money talks'!

Vick sells his house for $350k when it's worth $700k, the day the heat turns up on the investigation. Gets a nice tax writeoff!!!

Probably sold it to the district attorney who's not charging him.

 

[pats-blue]

There is no requirement for a DA to act quickly. They should be delibeate, not fast. Misconduct is yielding to public pressure.

Vick has been tried and found guilty by the public, and now the public is upset because the DA is wasting time procuring and evaluating evidence.

All that is happening is turning this thing into another OJ fiasco, where it becomes impossible to get an impartial trail, pretty much guaranteeing the impossiblity of a conviction even if Vick is really guilty.

http://www.wvec.com/video/topvideo-index.html?nvid=143764

There is a requirement for the DA to do his job though....maybe you should watch this video of the DA about the investigation. It is particularly interesting that the investigators in this case state they have plenty of evidence against Vick and the DA has refused to meet with them. The reporter asks him if it true he claims it is a lie yet has no clue when he will meet with investigators. He also claims that it will be wrapped up in 7-10 days yet he hasn't met with investigators and will not take evidence from them imlicating Vick. When asked when he will meet with investigator he says he has no idea. Just to let everyone know IT IS his job to meet with investigators so weather like he says the investgators are lying and he hasn't refused to meet them...why HASN'T HE requested a meeting or the evidence for the case??????(can you say CROOKED?) It is not just the public that is upset it is the Law Enforcment Officers investigating the case that are upset with him. If the DA was a cop instead of a lawyer he would have been strung up and every post would be filled with crooked cop talk. But since he is a lawyer I guess that is OK to do your best to let a famous person walk? All anyone here IS asking for is a fair trial and the ONLY thing makig it an "impossibility of a conviction" is the DA himself. You can't have a "fair" trial if the DA is negligent or taking bribes refuses to look at the evidence of the case and meet with investigators.

Does that sound like misconduct to you? It sure does to me. Yeah it is impossible to get a conviction when the DA won't even take the evidence. This video doesn't lie, watch it. The only people think this DA is on the up and up after watching this have to be related to Vick.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I was talking to guy from that area and he says it's there may be corruption inside the government down in Virginia. He says, 'money talks'!

Vick sells his house for $350k when it's worth $700k, the day the heat turns up on the investigation. Gets a nice tax writeoff!!!

Probably sold it to the district attorney who's not charging him.

Not only does money talk, it does so without an accent. The guy from that area was just assuring you that Boston and New York's native tongue, the dollar, is precisely the same as Surry's, Richmond's, or for that matter, Houston's.

PFnV

 

[TeamPats]

Wow, turns out it is the size of the dog in the fight.

Incidentally - I spend some time in Williamsburg. One great Sunday morning past-time there was to take a drive down to the Surry Ferry. You hopped on it, and it took you over the river to Surry, where you stopped (almost immediately) at the Surry House restaurant, and got a bunch of reasonably priced food - great fresh bread and biscuits, ham steaks (um, but not for me,) country breakfasts, jugs of coffee, what you would expect. Lots of dusty backroads there, rural routes. Some pretty humble living, not saying that's Vick's case, but there were shacks around, there were trailer parks, and of course there were plenty of good old fashioned country people in good old fashioned country houses. And of course, some temporary transplants like me.

Who knew that within a few miles of where I ate, Vick was being born... Lawrence Taylor and Aaron Brooks came from thereabouts too, and if I remember correctly a number of other players.

It's weird... when I hear about this dogfighting ring in that penninsula, my immediate first thought is "yeah, that fits." Not defending it, just saying I can picture it. My second thought is, it makes no more or less sense than seeing a kid from an inner city still trying to prove something on the street.... but there it is. Some kids make a quick transition. Others want to claim their roots, or just can't resist them. Sometimes those roots are antithetical to a 24/7 spotlight.

Again, I'm just woolgathering, not defending. Good luck with the campaign to prosecute.

PFnV

What I always thought was fascinating was that Brooks, Miichael Vick, Marcus Vick all went to the same High School and weren't even close in breaking most of the QB records there. If I recall correctly, that is also home of Allen Iverson who was the best High School QB that Virginia had ever seen, that guys is purely one of the greastest athletes of our generation.

 

[DaBruinz]

There is no requirement for a DA to act quickly. They should be delibeate, not fast. Misconduct is yielding to public pressure.

Vick has been tried and found guilty by the public, and now the public is upset because the DA is wasting time procuring and evaluating evidence.

All that is happening is turning this thing into another OJ fiasco, where it becomes impossible to get an impartial trail, pretty much guaranteeing the impossiblity of a conviction even if Vick is really guilty.

While there is no requirement for the AG to "act quickly. However, with all the evidence that the police have, its actually quite clear that the AG should have filed charges already. That he hasn't smacks of favortism.

 

[mgcolby]

While there is no requirement for the AG to "act quickly. However, with all the evidence that the police have, its actually quite clear that the AG should have filed charges already. That he hasn't smacks of favortism.

Exactly. So far you have all of the evidence at his property, witnesses contradicting his "I've never been there" defense, pet store clerks stating that he buys large amounts of dog supplies in the area, Construction worker(s) claiming that he was constantly at the property during the building of the house and that 40+ dogs were their during that time.

Then you have the Humane society stating that have heard rumors of Vick's involvement in dog fighting for years. The pictures of the residence show what look like 10x10 fenced in concrete slabs that are at least 3 feet thick, a bunch of sheds, a long row of kennels that appear to be professionally built and the people living there were unemployed.

Yesterday or the day before frustrated law enforcement officials leaked info that the DA is ignoring blatant evidence of Vick's involvement and then the Virginia Animal Fighting Task force comes out with this statement.

INFORMANT(S) SAY VICK WAS AT DOG FIGHTS
In a case that has featured new developments on a daily, the Virginian-Pilot reports that authorities are aware of an informant who has seen Falcons quarterback Michael Vick at dog fights.
"We have informants that will place him at these dog fights, yes," said Kathy Strouse, a member of the Virginia Animal Fighting Task Force. Strouse helped investigators in the search for evidence of dog fighting at Vick's Virginia property.
The informant has been "100 percent reliable" in the past, according to Mark Kumpf, a past president of the Virginia Animal Control Association and a consultant on the Vick case.​

To me it appears that the investigators on this case are tired of Poindexter dismissing or ignoring evidence and are taking matters into their own hands by putting a lot of public pressure on him to move forward.

 

[DaBruinz]

I sincerely hope that the federal agents get involved in this. I also hope that the Virgian State Bar comes down HARD on Poindexter. He should be disbarred and removed. This is pure negligence on his part and a clear showing of favoritism.