NewsOK: Appeals judge upholds cockfighting conviction

We were discussing this story before, in terms of the federal jurisdictional expansion into whatever they decide to regulate/control irregardless of their actual jurisdiction and using whichever tool they need at the moment, drugs gambling, guns, cocks:

NewsOK: Appeals judge upholds cockfighting conviction: "DENVER — An appeals court Thursday upheld an gambling conviction stemming from a 2006 federal raid on a cockfight in Caddo County.


More than 70 people were charged as federal prosecutors asserted authority over cockfighting on American Indian land.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 that the appeal of Shan Gachot, a Kiowa Indian, was moot and had no merit.

He pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Oklahoma City and was sentenced to one year of probation, including six months of home detention.

In his appeal, Gachot argued that federal authorities cannot, under the law used to indict him, prosecute victimless crimes committed by American Indians on Indian country land.

The Denver-based appeals court, in a six-page decision, did not decide that key issue. Instead, the judges concluded that Gachot's only argument applied to charges in the original indictment, which later was replaced by a different charge.

He originally was charged with three cockfighting crimes, but the charge later was changed to one count of operating an illegal gambling operation, a federal crime on or off of Indian land.

Gachot argued that federal prosecutors had no jurisdiction over Indian land.

U.S. Attorney Sheldon Sperling in Muskogee said he was pleased with Thursday's decision. His office prosecuted the raid c"