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Bastrop County deputies bust cockfighting ring near Elgin

Brandon Mulder
A rescued cockfighting rooster.

Bastrop County deputies on Sunday busted a cockfighting ring in a heavily wooded area east of Elgin and arrested the owner of the property where the fights were held, according to a police report.

Jerry Bradshaw, 49, is facing a cockfighting charge, a Class A misdemeanor, after leading a deputy to an area on his property where he said people were “just barbecuing and showing chickens,” according to his arrest affidavit.

Around 10 a.m. Sunday a deputy arrived on Bradshaw’s property in the 100 block of Norwood Lane in response to suspected cockfighting. When the deputy arrived he found a man standing at the front gate of the property and told the deputy he worked for the property owner. When the deputy asked him for the reason why there were so many parked cars in the area, the man said they were having “chicken fights,” according to Bradshaw’s arrest affidavit.

Shortly after Bradshaw approached the deputy and told him that “he had a few friends over and they were just barbecuing and showing chickens,” according to the affidavit. Bradshaw denied the cockfighting allegations and obliged the deputy’s request to show him around the 12-acre property.

“As we reached the back of the property, multiple people began running off into the woods,” the deputy wrote in his report. “There were also multiple vehicles trying to leave but were stopped by other deputies.”

On the property deputies found two large wooden fighting rings, numerous boxes used for transporting chickens, bags of spurs that are commonly fixed to a fighting rooster’s talons and a scale used to weigh chickens, the affidavit said.

Bradshaw confirmed that he was the property owner and had been for the last two decades. Bradshaw explained to deputies that, on the previous weekend, he had set up barbecue equipment next to the cockfighting rings and was selling food to the people who were there to “show chickens,” according to his affidavit.

Bradshaw was arrested and taken to the Bastrop County jail Sunday. His bail was set at $3,500. He was released Monday.