Toby Stumbo
Posts: 18456
Joined: 12/11/2006
From: Central Minnesota
Status: offline
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Here you go. quote:
JULY 17--NFL star Michael Vick was indicted today on a federal conspiracy charge for his alleged role in a dog fighting venture that operated from a Virginia property owned by the Atlanta Falcons quarterback. A copy of the indictment, filed today in U.S. District Court in Richmond, can be found below. The 27-year-old Vick, whose nickname is listed as "Ookie" in the indictment, allegedly established the Bad Newz Kennels in early 2001 in Smithfield, Virginia. It was this property, for which Vick paid $34,000, that the star athlete and his codefendants used as the "main staging area for housing and training the pit bulls involved in the dog fighting venture and hosting dog fights." According to prosecutors, Vick and his cohorts began purchasing pit bull puppies in late 2001and would eventually "sponsor" individual dog fights with purses as high as $26,000. In the most harrowing parts of the indictment, federal investigators describe what happened to some Bad Newz Kennels dogs that either lost matches or did not perform well in test fights. After a March 2003 loss by a female pit bull, codefendant Purnell Peace, "after consulting with Vick," electrocuted the animal. In April, prosecutors allege, Vick, Peace, and Quanis Phillips, "executed approximately 8 dogs thatr did not perform well in 'testing' sessions." These animals, the indictment charges, were killed "by various methods, including hanging, drowning, and slamming at least one dog's body to the ground."
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