What was this judge thinking? If City Magistrate is an elected office, I hope someone is planning on running against Michael Lex next time he has to defend his seat.
Thanks to the Arizona Daily Star for this article.
Six suspects in dog-fighting case released from jail without bond
By Kim Smith
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.21.2008Six people suspected of supplying dogs to organized dog fighting rings across the country were released from the Pima County jail without bond.
The Pima County Attorneys Office requested bail of $500,000 for each of the six people arrested in a county-wide raid Tuesday. But City Magistrate Michael Lex declined to set any bail at all, said Sheriffs Department Sgt. Terry Parish.
According to authorities, deputies began investigating the ring last March after they received tips from Chicago police and the Humane Society of the United States.
Officers in March had stopped a van carrying several fighting dogs and they developed information that led them to Tucson.
One of the six arrested, Mahlon T. Patrick, 63, is believed to be among the top three breeders of fighting dogs in the country, investigators said.
During the raid, investigators seized approximately 150 dogs, $10,000 in cash and more than 60 weapons ranging from revolvers up to assault-type weapons, Parish said.
Much of the cash was found attached to the underside of a drawer at one suspects house and authorities believe the weapons were used in trade, he said.
Eleven of the dogs seized from Patricks property required immediate medical attention because of their poor living conditions.
Deputies are still gathering evidence today at a site near West Orange Grove and North Sandario roads, in the Picture Rocks area, just one-half mile from a Sheriff’s Department substation, said Parish.
Investigators have found three dead dogs on the property along with the skeletal remains of an unknown number of other dogs, he said.
Since Tuesdays raids, the FBI, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Department of Agriculture have offered their assistance in the investigation.
