Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995                   TAG: 9501190129
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ROANOKE MEN GUILTY OF STAGING DOGFIGHT

David M. Ray, 39, and James E. Elston, 19, each will face up to five years in prison when they are sentenced March3, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Alice Ekirch.

At a hearing before Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein, animal control officers testified that a citizen complaint about fighting dogs led them to Strauss Park off Westside Boulevard Northwest the afternoon of Oct.7.

As animal control officer M.W. Quesenberry walked into the park, he testified, he saw Ray and Elston holding pit bull terriers on leashes, hovering over the two animals as they fought.

After the men spotted him, Quesenberry said, they took the dogs to a creek and were washing blood off them when he approached.

Ray and Elston maintained that one of their dogs got loose and attacked the other, and that they did nothing to encourage the fight. Assistant Public Defender Roger Dalton had argued at an earlier hearing that there was no evidence of betting, spectators or a designated area for the fight - all of which usually are associated with organized dogfighting.

State law makes it a felony to ``promote, engage in, or be employed in the organized fighting of dogs.''

Authorities have said that dogfights are a popular sport among some people in Roanoke, but charges are rare because the loosely organized and secretive fights are difficult to track down.

The dogs owned by Ray and Elston suffered cuts, and were taken to the Roanoke Valley Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, where they remain. Ekirch said no decision has been made on what to do with the animals.