VAN BUREN TWP. — Two Brown County residents and one Bartholomew County resident have been arrested and birds seized from a home on Grandview Road on allegations that they were involved in cockfighting.
Randall Herrin, Mark Herrin and Darina Herrin have been the subject of a multi-month, multi-agency investigation into cockfighting in Indiana and Kentucky, according to court documents released today.
All three Herrins have been charged in Brown Circuit Court with one count each of promoting an animal fighting contest and purchasing an animal for use in an animal fighting contest, both Level 6 felonies.
The Indiana State Police, Indiana Gaming Commission, Indiana Conservation Officers, Kentucky State Police, Bowling Green Kentucky Police, Brown County Sheriff’s Department and undercover officers were all involved. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASCPA) and the Indiana State Board of Animal Health also assisted, said Brown County Prosecutor Ted Adams.
Officers conducted surveillance on multiple occasions between December and March near Mark and Darina Herrin’s property at 9113 Grandview Road, according to a probable cause affidavit by Gaming Control Officer Rudy Perez.
Undercover officers also attended a cockfight at property Mark Herrin owns in Morgantown, Kentucky, the report said. Kentucky State Police had received a tip from a nearby resident that cockfighting may be going on and that vehicles from multiple states were there.
The Grandview Road property — which is just inside the Brown-Bartholomew county line — housed “possibly 100 birds,” Perez’s report said. He observed at least one rooster with its comb and wattles removed, which is a common practice for birds used in fighting, he wrote.
At the Kentucky property, undercover officers reported seeing all three Herrins attending and participating in the cockfights in various roles.
Perez wrote that in Indiana, cockfighting is a felony, whereas in Kentucky, it is a misdemeanor. “In my experience, most Indiana cockfighters breed, raised and train their fighting birds in Indiana and fight them in Kentucky,” he wrote.
This story will be updated.
