MONROE — A couple charged in October with cockfighting at their Clarno residence, both of whom say they’re not guilty, were bound over for trial after hours of preliminary hearings in December and January.

Water Mihn Dang, 36, and Phuong “Lily” P.T. Nguyen, 39, face one Class I felony count each of instigating animal fights as a party to a crime. A Class I felony is the least serious of felony crimes and is punishable by up to three and a half years in prison.

In December, 11 Class I felony counts of animal mistreatment were added to their cases, with each count corresponding to a chicken found on their rental property in the W6900 block of County B, Town of Clarno. Pleas of not guilty are entered on all counts.

After preliminary hearings with testimony from two Green County sheriff’s deputies concluded Jan. 28, Judge Thomas Vale ruled the prosecution has sufficient evidence to bring the charges and proceed to trial.

However, the judge is allowing the defense attorneys to re-argue that there is insufficient evidence specifically for the cockfighting charges and to ask to get those charges dismissed, according to Nguyen’s attorney Philip Brehm.

Brehm said he wants to review court transcripts and other evidence before he makes the decision to file a motion to dismiss the felony charge against his client of instigating animal fights. If he does pursue the dismissal, it would be after the next activity on the cases, a March 19 pre-trial conference.

The cases against Dang and Nguyen began with an Oct. 23 report of domestic abuse. Court records indicate Dang told police Nguyen, his girlfriend, started threatening him and their children and threw a frying pan in his direction after he made a disparaging comment about her mother during an argument. From this incident, Nguyen faces misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property in a separate case.

While deputies were investigating that case, Nguyen allegedly brought a deputy’s attention to a cellphone video of two chickens fighting.

When the deputy, Adam J. Bass, asked her if the video was of cockfighting, she responded, “At my house.” Bass noted in his report it was clear to him the video had been filmed in her yard. He also reported seeing “numerous feathers” and “dark-colored spots” on the concrete floor of an empty unattached garage on the property.

Nguyen said the chickens belonged to Dang and “stated she felt bad for the roosters and didn’t want her children watching the roosters fight,” Bass wrote. He noted that Nguyen told him she had not personally seen Dang fight the roosters or instigate them to fight.

When Bass asked her if anyone ever came to the house to watch the roosters fight or if anyone ever gambled on the fights, Nguyen said she was not sure, Bass wrote.

Bass later testified in court that Nguyen “did not like the chickens” and was “assertive, excited and forthcoming” with him about this.

Deputies seized the cellphone, which also had a video on it “of a rooster that appeared to be dying from injuries,” Bass wrote. They later seized dozens of chickens from the property. A search of the house did not turn up evidence of gambling, such as large amounts of cash or bookkeeping notes.

Bass found information on the cellphone about a type of knife that is attached to rooster legs during cockfights, but no such knives were located during a search of the house.

Deputy Paul Weichbrod, a trained humane officer for the sheriff’s office for more than 15 years, submitted a report in December on the 62 birds removed from the property. His analysis was informed by the veterinarian assigned to the case, Emily Weichbrod. She specializes in small animals and works for Brodhead Veterinary Medical Center. The Weichbrods are married.

His report describes a flock plagued by disease, injuries and aggressive behavior. The 62 birds seized included 25 hens and 21 roosters. Five birds had to be euthanized right away.

This high percentage of roosters was notable to Weichbrod. 

“To maintain a healthy, self-sustaining population of poultry only one rooster would be necessary and subsequent roosters that are hatched used as meat animals prior to maturity,” he wrote.

A breed present in the flock, called Asil or Aseel, has an aggressive temperament and is the “preferred breed to be used in cockfighting,” he noted.

He also noted traumatic injuries consistent with cockfighting, such as missing toes, missing feathers, extensive bruising, lacerations and blood-caked skin, and that no apparent effort had been made to treat the injuries or vaccinate the flock against disease. One rooster had a missing leg.

The roosters were kept in single-bird coops separate from the free-range chickens. “Specific and careful care” was provided to the roosters, according to Weichbrod, but the hens “were allowed to occupy and defecate and nest all within” a garage workshop without nesting material, and “it appeared that no attempt was ever made to clean this area.”

“It did not appear that any of these animals were being kept for the legitimate livestock purpose of poultry,” Weichbrod wrote.

Both deputies who investigated the case noted a language barrier when talking with Nguyen and Dang.

Nguyen “said she would answer questions,” Weichbrod wrote. However, there “appeared to be a slight language barrier and since it was not clear that she understood her rights,” he did not interrogate her. Likewise, Weichbrod read Dang his Miranda rights but “it did not appear that he understood his rights due to a language barrier.”

A court-certified Vietnamese translator was provided over the phone to Nguyen and Dang during their joint preliminary hearing.

Dang contacted area media outlets, including the Monroe Times, in the weeks after the cockfighting charges were filed against him and Nguyen. In an interview at their house, he denied the allegations, as did Nguyen.

Dang said his family had chickens growing up in Vietnam. His father was a doctor, he said, and people were so poor after the Vietnam War that they paid his father in chickens. Dang decided about a year ago to get back into raising and breeding them.

Both he and Nguyen are from Vietnam but said they have lived in the U.S. about 20 years and in the Monroe area three years.

“It’s a hobby,” Dang said of his flock. Eventually he planned to collect eggs to eat from the hens but at the time the birds were seized he was letting the eggs hatch for breeding purposes. He estimated he spent about three hours daily caring for his birds, including cleaning up feces from their makeshift nest in a garage workshop area.

The missing feathers and blood deputies observed on birds was due to the birds molting, he claimed. He said he found some birds for his flock from breeders online and that the ones with injuries like missing toes or a missing leg came to him that way.

“It’s legal to raise chickens,” he said.

Michelle Williams, who works with Dang and Nguyen at a nail salon in Monroe, said she looked after their chickens “quite a few different times” while the couple was out of town visiting family and she never saw evidence of cockfighting.

“(Dang) showed me what I needed to do to feed and water them,” she said. The way the roosters were housed alone in coops, “there was no way for them to get out” and fight each other.

One rooster had a missing leg, she noted. 

“I could actually pet that one,” Williams said. “He was actually the nicest one.”