KPTV is reporting that a Romanian princess and a former sheriff’s deputy were sentenced Wednesday to three years of probation after apologizing for their role in an Irrigon cockfighting enterprise that she said brought shame to her and her family.
John and Irina Walker pleaded guilty to the charge of operating an illegal gambling business in July. They were among 18 people arrested in August 2013 in Morrow County.
Investigators said the couple hosted cockfighting “derbies” between April 1, 2012 and May 19, 2013.
According to the KPTV report, prosecutors said they attached knives or other sharp objects to the legs of roosters and forced them to fight in front of large crowds inside a barn on their Irrigon property.
A federal indictment said the animals would fight to the death, but if a losing rooster did not die, it would almost always be killed afterward. The indictment also stated the operation would bring in gross revenue of $2,000 or more per derby.
John Walker worked as a deputy with the Coos County Sheriff’s Office from August 1998 through June 2003.
