Federal investigators have taken over the Michael Vick dogfighting probe and yesterday began digging up property owned by the NFL quarterback.
A search warrant drawn up by a Surry County, Va. sheriff’s deputy expired Thursday without ever being executed. Then federal law enforcement officials showed up with their own warrant for Vick’s property, indicating that they are taking over a slow-moving probe into the NFL star’s alleged participation in dogfighting.
News helicopters circled overhead and confirmed that investigators were digging, though when they left Vick’s home, they were only seen removing a cardboard box and a large sheet of plywood.
The Feds’ move surprised Virginia commonwealth attorney Gerald G. Poindexter.
Poindexter, in his own words, was “absolutely floored” when federal officials informed him that they were taking over the investigation. He believes both he and Sheriff Harold D. Brown handled the investigation properly.
“What is foreign to me is the federal government getting into a dogfighting case,” Poindexter said . “I know it’s been done, but what’s driving this? Is it this boy’s celebrity? Would they have done this if it wasn’t Michael Vick?”
Regardless of the federal government’s motivation, the scale of the search was evidence of their involvement. More than a dozen vehicles arrived at Vick’s home early Thursday afternoon. Investigators searched inside before focusing on an area behind the house where, in late April, dozens of dogs were found — some in kennels, some in chains — as was evidence of a dogfighting operation.
Vick is a registered dog breeder and claims he rarely visits the home at the center of the investigation, and was unaware it could be a hotbed of criminal activity. He also blamed family members for abusing his generosity, but has since remarked that his lawyers advised him not to comment.
Vick’s cousin, Davon Boddie, was living at the home during yesterday’s raid and the one in late April.
Local officials had secured a search warrant on May 25th, based on an informant’s disclosure that as many as 30 dogs were buried on the property. The warrant was never executed because Poindexter had issues with its wording, and expired before any action could be taken, perhaps motivating the feds to usurp the investigation.
“There’s a larger thing here, and it has nothing to do with any breach of protocol,” said Poindexter, who, like Vick, is black. “There’s something awful going on here. I don’t know if it’s racial. I don’t know what it is.”
Poindexter said, during his own inspection of the property, he saw a floor in one building stained with what appeared to be spattered blood.
As the feds’ search came to a close, the dozens of cars — and an evidence collection truck from the Virginia State Police — left Vick’s property. One of the last men to leave Thursday night, who refused to identify himself, described the scene and said “I hope I never see this place again.”