By Elizabeth Ferszt
Contributing Writer
In another twist in the cockfighting story that has been developing since July of this year, SHARK founder Steve Hindi now says that he has the names and addresses of nine (9) other alleged cockfighters who can be seen in the drone video they shot on July 26.
But according to Hindi, “Assistant Prosecutor Dan Norbeck has told us there will be no more [charges]… so we will continue to pursue this on our own.”
Allegan Co. Prosecutor’s Office issued charges of four counts of felony animal fighting, and a single count of third degree animal abuse (killing and torturing) of birds, against Edin Rodas (age 37) of Hopkins Twp.
Rodas posted bond of $5,000 cash surety and was released from county jail on Sept. 23, according to a spokesperson at the jail.
According to a spokesperson, Senior Assistant Prosecutor Jon Blair will be taking over the cockfighting case, but he did not respond to emails or phone calls for comment.
According to Hindi, the other alleged illegal cockfightIng men include:
a father and son team out of Fennville who have birds on their property; a man from Paw Paw who also has birds on property; a 25-year-old man from Grand Rapids, whose photos with birds can be seen on Facebook; two other men, one in white shirt, one in red shirt, who can be seen on the main drone surveillance video as paying off their bets and/or exchanging cash money after a fight; an older guy in a blue sleeved shirt and a brown or grey baseball cap (in the video), standing near a silver SUV with his son-in-law, watching the fights; a man from Lawrence, MI, who was a sports coach at Lawton School, and who lives on Red Arrow Highway on a piece of property “loaded with birds”; and another man from Fennville, who is wearing a red shirt and looking up into the sky (for drones?) in the video.
The Allegan County News is refraining from printing their names and addresses at this time.
Why wouldn’t you print it? What’s the purpose of hiding the identity of criminals and animal abusers?