Cockfighting still legal in 13 Oklahoma counties

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Cockfighting proponents have won restraining orders in five southern Oklahoma counties in an effort to keep a new law from being enforced.<br><br>Associate District Judge Robert Highsmith,

Friday, November 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- Cockfighting proponents have won restraining orders in five southern Oklahoma counties in an effort to keep a new law from being enforced.

Associate District Judge Robert Highsmith, whose jurisdiction includes Carter, Johnston, Love, Marshall and Murray counties, on Friday granted requests to block the law.

Those five join Adair, Cherokee, Choctaw, McCurtain, Muskogee, Pushmataha, Sequoyah, and Wagoner counties, where restaining orders
or temporary injunctions have been issued.

At a hearing on Thursday in Tahlequah, District Judge Bruce Sewell suggested the multiple legal actions be consolidated into a single case.

Attorney Larry Oliver has filed motions in all 13 counties, naming the state, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation and local law enforcement officers as defendants.

He alleges in the lawsuits that the defendants' rights are being violated and that the law is unconstitutional. A hearing date on Oliver's request for a temporary injunction was set in Johnston County for Jan. 17.

A majority of Oklahomans who voted cast ballots to do away with
cockfighting in the Nov. 5 general election. The law went into
effect the following Friday, Nov. 8, after election results were
certified.

Violators of the new law could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $25,000.

Janet Halliburton, attorney for the Oklahoma Coalition Against Cockfighting, has warned that although authorities have temporarily been stopped from enforcing the law in those 13 counties, the law is still valid and could be used against them later.

Coalition officials have accused game fowl breeders of delaying implementation of the law without any legal justification.