Greeley – A 41-year-old Weld County man will get six months in jail for helping friends who see cockfighting as a cultural tradition, a defense attorney said Wednesday.
Juan Manuel Mexmeza Franco also was sentenced to three years’ probation and 200 hours of community service by Weld County District Judge James Hartmann.
Franco pleaded guilty in May to a felony count of attempted animal fighting. After his farm outside of Gill was raided by sheriff’s deputies on Dec. 2, 2005, he was arrested on 18 counts of animal fighting.
Deputies said they seized 16 roosters from the farm and implements often used in organized cockfighting, including artificial spurs, animal vitamins and supplements and videotapes.
But Franco’s attorney, Al Cabral, said his client was keeping the roosters and the fighting equipment for Franco’s friends. They came from Mexico to work the fields of Weld County and consider cockfighting a cultural pastime.
“This is a practice that has gone on for hundreds of years south of the border, and they continue that culture when they come here to work,” Cabral said. “And now he (Franco) is paying the price for that.”
Cockfighting involves placing two male birds in an enclosure to battle it out, and bets are placed on the outcome.
Cockfighting is banned in nearly every state. In Colorado, it is a felony – as are watching a fight and possessing a gamecock and cockfighting material.
It’s still allowed in many Latin American countries. But once someone crosses the border into the United States, they have to be aware that it is illegal here, said Dave Pauli, director of the Northern Rockies regional office of the Humane Society of the United States.
“Whether it’s part of your culture or not, it is unacceptable in Colorado and in other states,” Pauli said. “It is wrong and inhumane.”
He concedes that the bloodsport still goes on at some level in all eight states in the Rocky Mountain region. “It’s pretty well underground,” he said, “but it’s here.”
Cabral sought probation for Franco, saying that his client has eight children and that his livelihood depends on his doing construction work for local farmers.
All members of the Franco family are documented American citizens, Cabral said.
But prosecutor Robb Williams pointed to Franco’s criminal record – including a felony drug conviction and a pair of third-degree assault convictions – as proof that a harsher sentence was needed.
Franco’s jail sentence will be served as work release. Even so, Cabral said, it was unjustified.
“He’s a good, hardworking man,” Cabral said, “caught in a bad situation.”
Staff writer Monte Whaley can be reached at 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com.
