Cockfight Spectators May Be Arrested, High Court Affirms

WASHINGTON —  A spectator at a cockfight can be charged with a crime in California, the Supreme Court affirmed Tuesday.

The justices rejected a challenge to a state law dating back to 1868 which makes it a crime for “any person who, for amusement or gain, causes any bull, bear, cock or other animal . . . to fight with like kind of animal or creature.” Anyone who “aids, abets or is present at such fighting . . . as a spectator is guilty of a misdemeanor,” according to the law.

A lawyer representing Richard Elder and a dozen other men charged in Fresno with being present at a cockfight appealed their fine to the Supreme Court. They contended that it is unconstitutional to charge “mere spectators” or innocent passers-by with a crime. They noted that state courts in Hawaii, Ohio and Missouri had ruled unconstitutional such laws directed at spectators.

However, a state appellate court in Fresno upheld the misdemeanor penalty against those who “knowingly” attend cockfights. “Knowingly present spectators who purposefully watch cockfighting encourage the ‘sport,’ ” the court said. On Tuesday, the U.S. justices dismissed the appeal in the case (Elder vs. California, 88-819).

In another action, the high court rejected the state’s appeal of a ruling that San Diego police had violated the rights of a murder suspect by handcuffing him. Thanks to a tip from a co-worker and the matching of tire tracks from a murder scene, police detectives had enough evidence last January to question Mark Radke in the brutal killing of an acquaintance. Two officers, spotting him in his car, pulled him to the roadside. One officer drew his gun and a second put handcuffs on Radke as they questioned him.

But a state appellate court, on a 2-1 vote, said that this police action violated Radke’s constitutional right to be free of “unreasonable searches and seizures.” The officers had firm grounds for stopping Radke, the court said. However, “use of the gun and handcuffs turned what should have been a legal detention into an illegal arrest,” it concluded. The state supreme court refused to hear the prosecutor’s appeal, and on Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court did the same (Radke vs. California, 88-914).