Feds Open Investigation Into Illegal Dogfighting Around Vick

Feds Open Investigation Into Dogfighting At Property Owned By Vick

Federal authorities have “opened their own independent investigation of dogfighting” at a Virginia property owned by Falcons QB Michael Vick, and Surry County (VA) Commonwealth Attorney Gerald Poindexter said that he “sees only one target,” according to Steve Wyche of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. Poindexter: “Michael Vick, is he the target? Who else would be?” Poindexter said that federal charges “could result in more severe punishment than the maximum five-year prison term in Virginia for dogfighting and animal cruelty.” U.S. Department of Agriculture agent James Knorr told Poindexter on Thursday afternoon that federal agents and state police were at Vick's property and “were going to search the grounds under the authority of a ‘sealed’ warrant.” Vick’s cousin, Davon Boddie, whose arrest in April led to a drug investigation at the Virginia property, “issued an apology to NFL commissioner Roger Goodell” and the Falcons. Boddie: “I want (Goodell) to know that everything going on is really my fault. They’re just making Michael look like something he’s not" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 6/8). Poindexter said, “What is foreign to me is the federal government getting into a dogfighting case. I know it’s been done, but what’s driving this? Is it this boy’s celebrity? Would they have done this if it wasn’t Michael Vick?” (AP, 6/8).