By GLEN WERLING
Preliminary pleas of not guilty were entered in Wells Superior Court for three people arrested in connection with a cockfighting ring at a rural Ossian residence.
Pleas were entered for Aung Myint, 61, Fort Wayne, Nyon Ma Sun, 51, Fort Wayne, and Kan Lay, 47, rural Ossian. All three have been charged with purchasing an animal for use in a fighting contest or possessing an animal for use in a fighting contest, a Level 6 felony. Bond for Myint and Sun was continued at $5,000 each. Because Lay is facing an additional charge of failure to properly dispose of a dead animal, a Level 6 felony, his bond was continued at $10,000.
Jeffrey Stineburg was appointed as a public defender for Myint, Allison Sprunger was appointed as a public defender for Sun. Lay informed the court that he wished to employ private counsel.
Beginning Dec. 4, 2021, local law enforcement began receiving multiple complaints of cock fighting occurring at a farm back on a lane at 4305N-Ind. 1. While the farm has a rural Ossian address, it is located only about a mile north of the Bluffton city limits.
The complaints were from neighbors of the farm who reported foul odors akin to that of decaying animal carcasses and multiple times where the farm was receiving large numbers of raucous visitors.
The farm house and 5.75 acres of curtilage had been purchased by several people from Fort Wayne on Sept. 11, 2020. The owners of the property were listed as Kan Lay, Zaw Lay and Ja Me. The owners had fenced and gated the acreage, and when sheriff’s deputies responded to the complaints of the neighbors, the owners of the property allegedly denied deputies entrance to the farm. They denied that anything illegal was taking place.
It was not the first time that deputies had responded to complaints about the residence and, as it turned out, would not be the last.
Unable to establish any sound legal reasons to seek a search warrant but believing that the neighbor’s claims of possible animal abuse had some foundation, they decided to hand further investigation of the complaints to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, which in turn contacted the Indiana Gaming Control Agency, which governs the use of game fowl. It was at this point that gaming officers Jeffrey L. Boyd and Robert Brophy started investigating the complaints.
Because the property is set a considerable distance of off Ind. 1 and 400N and is fenced and gated, Brophy and Boyd realized that they would need permission from the farmer who owned the fields surrounding the farm to initiate surveillance.
The farmer granted the permission advising the officer of other animal cruelty he allegedly witnessed, including, he claimed, the tying of the horns of cattle together to prevent them from either eating or drinking.
The farmer also believed that unsanitary butchering practices were taking place at the farm.
Boyd and Brophy were able to use the field access to drive around the property and photograph what appeared to be suspicious activity inside the fenced area of the farm — including a large pit that contained trash and the remains of animals in various stages of decay.
In the center of the property was a large white barn in a state of extreme disrepair. Neither Boyd nor Brophy were able to see inside the barn, but they did observe stacked pens in what appeared to be an old corncrib. Inside the pens were reportedly what appeared to be game fowl. The officers estimated between 18 and 30 pens were in the structure. Each pen was padlocked, which Boyd observed was unusual but which caused him to suspect that the fowl inside the pens had considerable monetary value.
Boyd reported seeing several birds that were of a breed that he did not recognize but later discovered was actually a special Burmese breed that had been hybridized by the Burmese people specifically for the sport of cock fighting.
Upon further investigation, Boyd discovered that cock fighting is popular in Burmese culture, but is done clandestinely in Myanamar (formerly Burma) due to prohibitions against betting or gambling.
Because of the growing complexity of the case, Boyd and Brophy chose to involve multiple agencies in the investigation including the Wells County Sheriff’s Department, the Indiana State Police, the Indiana State Board of Animal Health and two veterinarians experienced in the area of the health of game birds.
Officer Brophy also contacted resources in Allen County who could assist he and Boyd in interpreting the Burmese language.
Brophy and Boyd next received permission from neighbors to the property to set up surveillance. The officers noticed additional parts of dead animals had been placed in the pit since they had previously conducted surveillance at the farm.
The officers observed several people visiting the property and caring for the fowl. They decided to perform license plate checks of the vehicles entering and exiting the property.
Moving into January with the investigation, Boyd spoke with additional neighbors who expressed concerns that animals were being ritually sacrificed at the property.
Then on Jan. 15, Brophy and Boyd counted 42 vehicles entering and exiting the residence between 1:30 and 6:12 p.m. They counted 82 people on the property at one time. There was a woman acting as a gatekeeper at the driveway entrance to the property. The officer reported witnessing vehicles pull up to her at the gate, her greeting the people in the vehicles and appearing to be taking money from them. The occupants of only a small number of vehicles were reportedly allowed inside the gate without paying. Everyone else paid.
The officers also allegedly witnessed a man disposing of a dead chicken in the pit and one of the people who arrived at the residence was carrying a live chicken onto the property.
Through further surveillance, Brophy and Boyd reported that all of the cattle they had previously observed on the farm were no longer visible and that the pit with dead animals and animal hides had been covered over and a new pit had been dug.
Over the course of several months, the officers reported witnessing several more events similar to the first event that they had witnessed with multiple visitors to the property during what Brophy and Boyd believed were cockfighting events. On April 6, they observed that a new sign forbidding guns on the property had been posted. That led them to believe that guns must have been brought by visitors onto the property in the past and that there may have been a problem involving firearms.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s department continued to receive complaints about the property, including one complaint from a caller who reported witnessing several men chasing a goat around the pasture on the property. When they caught the goat, they reportedly laid it on its side and then injured or broke one of its hind legs. The men allegedly then laughed about the activity and then tried to get the goat to stand. When it could not stand, the goat was allegedly dragged back up to the main property.
At that point, investigators went to the property and reported seeing new cows’ heads and hides in the new pit.
Eventually, a squawking duck accidentally flushed by Boyd alerted the owners of the officers’ presence during the visit. Lay walked out to greet Brophy and Boyd, and Boyd told Lay that he and Brophy were from an insurance company and were ensuring that the debris from the barn, which was had been further damaged in a recent storm, had not fallen on the adjacent farm field property.
Boyd then engaged Lay in a conversation about the roosters on the property, to which Lay allegedly readily admitted that they were “fighting roosters” and that he bred them for sale at $300 each. Lay reportedly was cautious about what he spoke to Boyd about, but reportedly was not reticent to speak about raising birds for fighting purposes. He did not talk about any actual cockfighting occurring at the farm.
After realizing that their initial audio recording of their interaction with Lay was poor, Boyd and Brophy returned to the property intending to talk with Lay again, but this time only Boyd spoke with Lay under the ruse that his “uncle” engages in cockfighting that uses “knives and gaffs” and that he did not want the other person he was with (Brophy) to know about it.
Lay allegedly fell for the ruse and the two began to discuss cockfighting. Allegedly Lay admitted to knowing that some forms of cockfighting were illegal in the U.S. and that he did not participate in the type where knives and gaffs are used as it could result in a fine of $5,000 and probation.
But Lay also allegedly continued to speak with Boyd about the “sport” and the roosters that he was reportedly raising and selling for fighting purposes.
The investigation continued into September as Brophy and Boyd, still working off-property, were now gathering evidence during the alleged cockfighting events held in the damaged barn.
Boyd eventually managed to build rapport with three people at the residence, including the alleged gatekeeper, identified as Sun. During his conversations with Lay, Boyd reported learning that Myint was Lay’s partner in raising the birds, again allegedly for cockfighting. Boyd reported observing Myint interact with the others on the property during different activities and appeared to be involved in the care for the birds.
Brophy and Boyd continued their surveillance of the property into October in an effort to build their case toward its impending climax.
Having built rapport with Lay, Myint and Sun, Boyd and Brophy returned to and drove onto the property Oct. 26. No one appeared to be around, so outside of the fence, Boyd managed to take multiple photographs of the property at a much closer distance. They returned at 1:30 p.m. after surveillance officers working with Brophy and Boyd observed that people had returned to the residence. Boyd first spoke with Myint, then Sun and asked to speak with Lay. Boyd noted in his report that both Myint and Sun spoke in Burmese to each other and then to Lay, who was still inside the house.
Lay reportedly exited the house and he and Boyd spoke about purchasing a rooster for Boyd’s “uncle.” Lay replied he only had “little ones” and that he should come back in a few months when the roosters had grown. Boyd told Lay that he could hear more mature roosters crowing and asked about them. Lay allegedly replied that those animals were too old for fighting. Plus, Lay reportedly admitted that he was housing fowl for other owners.
Boyd insisted on purchasing an animal and Lay reportedly took him to a group of padlocked pens with Myint and another man whom Boyd did not recognize. Boyd was directed by the men to a pen on the end and the unknown man at Lay’s direction removed a rooster from one of the pens. Lay reportedly told Boyd that the rooster had fought in the past and had taken out the eye of another rooster.
Lay also reportedly told Boyd that they did not fight roosters on the property.
The men agreed on a purchase price of $320 for the rooster, and Lay reportedly told Boyd he should return in three months when the other fowl were fully grown and ready for fighting to buy another rooster. Boyd took the rooster to his car and Lay took Boyd to another pen and displayed a black rooster that he claimed he could get $700 to $800 for.
After exchanging salutations one more time with Lay, Myint and the other man, Boyd and Brophy left the property, submitted the rooster as evidence to a third investigator, and the rooster was examined by a veterinarian at Purdue University. The care for the rooster was then referred to the Humane Society of the United States because of its experience in handling abused game animals. HSUS was then requested to assist in the investigation
glenw@news-banner.com
