18°
Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr., 64, pleaded guilty in September to federal charges that include conspiracy to engage in animal fighting, specifically the fighting of dogs, and interstate travel in aid of racketeering.
On Friday, Dec. 13, officials announced that Moorefield has been sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison, followed by six months of home detention and three years of supervised release.
A judge also ordered that Moorefield be fined $20,000 and pay an additional forfeiture of $21,576.
According to the guilty plea, federal agents began investigating Moorefield’s connections to dogfighting after officers from Anne Arundel County Animal Control responded to a report of two dead dogs found in a plastic dog food bag in Annapolis in November 2018.
Moorefield was affiliated with a dogfighting enterprise known as the “DMV Board," which operated throughout the region, officials say
The Deputy Chief Information Officer for Command, Control, and Communications for Office of the Secretary of Defense, and a co-conspirator used an encrypted messaging application to communicate with others across the country to discuss dogfighting, according to prosecutors.
He used the name “Geehad Kennels” to identify his operation, which he ran out of his Anne Arundel County home for more than two decades, where he bred, trained, and kept the animals.
A review of Moorefield’s phone and iCloud account showed numerous message exchanges regarding dogfighting with other members of the DMV Board, where they talked about methods of training, and arranged the dogfights.
After arranging a fight, Moorefield trained his dogs in a process known as a “keep,” officials said.
Moorefield’s typical keep schedule for a dog involved physical training (using treadmills, weighted collars, and other accessories), a diet plan, and the use of steroids, which were obtained through various contacts in the dogfighting network, not through legitimate veterinary practices.
"When Moorefield sponsored a dog in a fight, the fight ended only when a dog died or when the owner forfeited the match—either through the dog 'quitting' the fight or the owner 'picking up' the dog," court documents state.
In the event that one of Moorefield’s dogs lost a fight but did not die, Moorefield killed that dog, and not humanely.
According to prosecutors, one method of killing employed by Moorefield involved the use of a device consisting of jumper cables connected directly to an ordinary plug. Moorefield plugged the device into a wall socket and attached the cables to the dog, electrocuting it.
Between January 2019 and October 2023, Moorefield sent and received monetary payments through CashApp related to his participation in dogfighting.
During a search of his Anne Arundel County home in September 2023, investigators recovered five pitbull-type dogs from large metal cages in a windowless room of Moorefield’s basement.
They also found several containers of animal medication, dog food, and protein powder in the same room, as well as the jumper-cable device, which Moorefield used to kill dogs that were no longer fit for use in dogfighting.
A large piece of folded-up carpet from a shed on the property that was stained with several places of blood was also recovered and it is believed to have been used as the floor of an arena to stage dogfights.
When he was interviewed following the search of his home, Moorefield told agents that he had only recently obtained - within the past week - four of the five dogs found on the property, and the one he had not recently picked up "was diagnosed as exhibiting calloused skin and an old injury, in addition to being infested with fleas," and it had to be humanely euthanized "after exhibiting extreme aggression toward both human caretakers and other dogs.
It was ultimately determined that Moorefield bred and trained all five dogs for the purposes of sponsoring them in dogfights.
Want breaking news in the DMV as it happens, or want to contribute? Join the DMV All Incidents Facebook group.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Burtonsville and receive free news updates.
