Back to jail for a fourth time

Freeporter Anthony Reddick convicted for dogfighting

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Anthony Reddick of Freeport was convicted for the fourth time for his role in training pit bull dogs for use in an illegal dogfighting enterprise. Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said he was found guilty on Friday, June 24 and faces 16 months  to four years in prison. The maximum sentence for this offense, an unclassified felony under the Agriculture and Markets Law, is four years.


 Reddick, pleaded guilty on May 24 in front of Acting Supreme Court Justice Terence Murphy to one count of Prohibition of Animal Fighting and Criminal Contempt in the 2nd Degree.  This was Reddick’s fourth conviction for Prohibition of Animal Fighting.  As part of the defendant’s sentence, he was prohibited from having any contact with animals for 15 years by court order.  His conviction for criminal contempt stemmed from his violation of a prior such order, said the DA’s office.


 “Anthony Reddick has relentlessly participated in the violent criminal enterprise of dogfighting for nearly two decades,” Singas said. “His sentence, though the maximum allowable by law, should put the public and the legislature on notice that our state desperately needs to enhance the penalties for such atrocious acts.  My office has long lobbied for such change, proposing legislation year after year, and will continue to push for reform until serial dogfighters, like Reddick, balance their decades of crime with decades in prison.”


 Dogfighting involves two dogs that have been specifically bred, conditioned, and trained to fight who are placed in a pit (generally a small arena enclosed by plywood walls) to fight each other for the spectators’ entertainment and gambling. “Fights average one to two hours, ending when one of the dogs will not or cannot continue,” reads the website of the Humane Society of the United States. “The injuries inflicted and sustained by dogs participating in dogfights are frequently severe, even fatal. Dogs used in these events often die of blood loss, shock, dehydration, exhaustion, or infection hours or even days after the fight. Other animals are often sacrificed as well; dogs who are born “cold,” or won’t fight, may be kept around to sic other dogs on. “


Singas said that between March 29 and May 13, 2015, Reddick, while on parole from another dogfighting conviction secured by the District Attorney’s Office, conspired with others to breed, purchase, train, and fight pit bull dogs in an underground network of dog fighters.  Reddick had just been released from jail on March 5, 2015 after serving time for his 2014 conviction of Prohibition of Animal Fighting and was on parole when intercepted communications with other members of the ring revealed that Reddick was actively involved in the breeding and training of dogs.  “Reddick engaged in this conduct despite his acknowledgement to others that he was not supposed be around animals for 15 years by Court Order,”Singas said.


 In 2014, Reddick pled guilty to multiple dogfighting counts after a fire at his residence revealed a substantial training facility for fighting dogs.  Multiple pit bulls, confined to cages, perished in that fire and their bodies were found amongst modified treadmills, break-sticks, spring-poles, and other training apparatus indicative of dogfighting activity.  A warrant executed on his premises revealed his participation in the underground enterprise spanning back more than a decade.  Reddick’s first conviction in connection with dogfighting was in 1998; his second in 2001.


 The defendant was arrested by the Nassau County Police Department Narcotics Vice Bureau on May 13, 2015, after a joint investigation with the DA’s office dubbed “Operation Blood Sport.”  Fellow dog fighter, Keith Salley, also known as SLAY, was also arrested as a result of this investigation.  Salley pleaded guilty on June 16 to five felony counts of Prohibition of Animal Fighting for his role in the fighting, training, and breeding of pit bulls dogs to be used in dog fighting for amusement or gain. Salley is due back in court for sentencing before Judge Murphy on August 11.  Reddick’s co-defendant, Shaheem Allen was likewise convicted and sentenced for dogfighting and heroin charges this past March.


 The Nassau County District Attorney’s Office has sought to change laws related to animal crimes that are currently classified in the state’s Agriculture and Markets Law.  In 2012, the office authored the Consolidated Animal Crimes Bill (CACB), which would double the incarceration exposure for dogfighting, and make repeat offenders subject to mandatory prison terms.  Current maximum sentences for felony animal cruelty or felony dog fighting are two and four years in prison, respectively, with no increase in sentence for repeat offenders like Riddick. Under the CACB those crimes become D felonies, which feature a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, and repeat offenders can be exposed to increase prison time due to prior convictions.


 “Under this legislation animal cruelty laws are placed under the Penal law, which would include criminal penalties for enhanced deterrence to animal cruelty, which we desperately need here in the State of New York,” Assemblyman Brian Curran said in an earlier interview.


Brian Shapiro, New York state spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States said in an earlier interview that currently police officers are required to be trained on the state’s penal law but not its agriculture & markets law. “The average cop or prosecutor is not familiar with agricultural law,” Shapiro said. “The CABC ensures that arresting offices have a more thorough grasp of the state’s animal crimes law when responding to a call or a crime scene and needing to decide whether or not to make arrests.”


The CACB has been introduced each year since 2012 but has failed to come to the floor for a vote. In 2015 and 2016, DA Singas proposed additional statutes that would expand the use of electronic surveillance and organized crime statutes to include dogfighting.  These proposals passed the state senate, but failed to pass the assembly before the end of the 2016 legislative session.


  Freeporter Debbie Wilson lost her dog when someone broke into her home. She wants to see the law changed. “This guy knows how to play the system,” Wilson wrote on Facebook. “The laws need to be changed. It’s the only felony charge that doesn’t have a “three strikes you’re out” attached to it.  He can commit this crime 50 times and the sentence will never change.”