Clock Fighting
Cock Fighting connoisseur (and former Page County Sheriff) Daniel Presgraves found himself in Federal Court for the final hearing before his trail starts in September. The feds are charging him with 23 charges: racketeering, lying to a federal agent and sexual assault. I wont go into the other 20 charges, but you get the point. Lets just say, he could be going away (as in Prison) for quite a while.
It was reported earlier this week that a witness against Presgraves won’t be able to testify in the case. The witness died, though no reason or nor any other details were given (that I am aware of). I will update everyone when I find out more.
In the hearing Jerry Kilgore, who is Presgraves’ attorney, filed motions to have many of the charges against the former sheriff dismissed. Kilgore told the judge that the charges were not related and therefore the racketeering charges should be dismissed.
It was a great try by Kilgore, but by definition racketeering is just a collection of unrelated charges. (For those of you that watched the Sopranos, this the RICO Act that Tony was always talking about).
Federal law says, racketeering activity is:
Any act of bribery, counterfeiting, theft, embezzlement, fraud, dealing in obscene matter, obstruction of justice, slavery, racketeering, gambling, money laundering, commission of murder-for-hire, and several other offenses.
- Embezzlement of union funds;
- Bankruptcy or securities fraud;
- Drug trafficking;
- Money laundering and related offenses;
- Bringing in, aiding or assisting aliens in illegally entering the country (if the action was for financial gain);
- Acts of terrorism.
Presgraves
The trial will start September 16th in Harrisonburg.
