A third Georgia man who operated a cockfight operation not far from Augusta has been sentenced to prison.
William S. Scott, 49, of Midville in Emanuel County, was sentenced to 16 months in prison. Scott pleaded guilty last year to sponsoring and exhibiting an animal in an animal fighting venture, according to a media release from David H. Estes, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Chief Judge J. Randal Hall also ordered Scott to pay a $2,500 fine and forfeit the land on which the fights were held. Scott is also prohibited from owning birds or fowl or engaging in cockfighting. Once he completes the prison term, Scott will serve two years on supervised release.
[adrotate banner=”25″]
“William Shannon Scott’s sentencing represents the final trip to court for three men who operated illegal animal fighting venues in the Southern District of Georgia,” Estes said in the news release. “Thanks to outstanding work from our law enforcement partners, we have shut down these three animal cruelty arenas – and it should serve as a warning to those who would attempt to engage in this reprehensible practice.”
The owners of two other venues, Wendell Allan Strickland, 67, of Swainsboro, was sentenced to serve 27 months in prison in November, and Lanier Augustus Hightower, 65, of Lincolnton, was sentenced to serve 14 months in prison in September, according to earlier new releases from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
As described in court documents and testimony, Scott operated a cockfighting venue called Little Sunset on his Midville property. The venue alternated weekend events with Strickland’s Emanuel County venue, The Red Barn. Scott was arrested in June 2020 on federal charges as part of Operation Sunrise, a multi-agency raid of a cockfighting tournament at his property in which nearly 200 possible participants were identified. Six months earlier, the operation on Hightower’s farm in Lincoln County was the first of the three raided by law enforcement agencies during a cockfighting tournament in December 2019.
The investigation into animal fighting operations in the Southern District were led by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Inspector General (USDA-OIG) and in cooperation with multiple federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The U.S. Government has initiated forfeiture proceedings for the real property on which each of the three tournaments were held, while overseeing the forfeiture of more than $200,000 in cash from illegal betting along with knives and gaffs that were affixed to the animals during fights.
