Looks like Georgia is taking dogfighting seriously. Also, lets keep reminding law enforcement that many people involved in dogfighting are also involved in other kinds of crime. If the police can convict them on dogfighting charges as well as other things, all the better.
Thanks to AJC.com for this article.
Fulton man accused of dog fighting stays in jail
By BETH WARREN
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/18/08A man suspected of running a large dogfighting ring lobbied for bail Monday, but he will remain penned in.
A Fulton County judge ordered Ossia Phillips, 31, to remain in the Fulton County Jail because he had violated the conditions of his bond on more serious pending charges kidnapping a man at gunpoint.
Phillips is accused of helping two friends kidnap a man on March 20, 2007. As an accomplice drove, Phillips held a gun to the man’s head, demanding $50, Fulton prosecutor Laura Janssen alleged in court. The victim was bound at the wrists and ankles and held hostage for hours while the culprits contemplated killing him, she said.
Phillips was out on bond awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm during the commission of a crime when he was charged with dogfighting in December. Phillips had vowed to stay out of trouble, away from drugs and guns, and had said he was living in College Park.
Instead, police say, they searched his southwest Fulton property on Blanton Avenue and found marijuana, a sawed-off shotgun, dogfighting ring with bleachers, dead dogs and 15 live pit bulls, some of them scarred or recently wounded.
Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. told Phillips he was upset that Phillips had violated several conditions of his previous bond. The judge said he denied giving Phillips bail in this case because he feared Phillips might threaten witnesses and commit other crimes.
Phillips’ attorney, Thomas Nicholson, had been lobbying for bail, claiming his client had no reason to run.
“He expects to be exonerated” in both the dogfighting and kidnapping cases, the attorney said. “He won’t go anywhere to avoid it.”
Nicholson also said Phillips had never been convicted of a felony.
But Janssen told the judge that Phillips pleaded guilty in 2000 to a felony drug dealing charge of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, but was allowed to wipe his record clean as a first offender if he stayed out of trouble.
