Jan. 1, 2001: Vick wins the Most Valuable Player award in Tech’s 41-20 victory over Clemson in the Gator Bowl. Tech finishes the season 11-1.
Jan. 11, 2001: Vick announces he is making himself available for the NFL draft.
April 21, 2001: Vick is the first pick of the NFL draft. He is chosen by Atlanta after the Falcons trade with the San Diego Chargers for the top pick.
May 9, 2001: The Falcons sign Vick to the richest rookie contract in league history at the time. He receives a $62 million, six-year deal that guarantees $15.3 million through the first three years, including a signing bonus of $3 million.
June 2001: According to a federal indict ment, Vick buys property at 1915 Moonlight Road in Surry County after an associate, Tony Taylor, had picked it out as suitable for development into a dogfighting training and fight-hosting complex. That year, Vick, Taylor and two other men started acquiring American pit bulls for fighting from Virginia and other states, the indictment alleges.
Spring 2002: According to the indictment, Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels takes part in arranged dogfights in North Carolina. In late 2002, Bad Newz is host for a dogfight at Vick’s property with a purse of $2,000.
2003: The indictment alleges that Bad Newz dogs and Vick, Taylor, Purnell A. Peace and Quanis L. Phillips took part in about eight organized fights, some sponsored at 1915 Moonlight Road and some in other states, with purses ranging from a couple of thousand dollars to $26,000 for one match. The indictment also alleges that in 2004 and 2005, Bad Newz was host for about 10 fights at the Vick property.
April 24: Vick’s cousin, Davon Boddie, is arrested in Hampton on drug charges. According to court papers, he gives his address as 1915 Moonlight Road, and police obtain a warrant to search the home for other drugs and paraphernalia.
April 25: Police serve the warrant in Surry and find numerous dogs and what looks like a dog-training complex of dark-painted buildings in the woods behind the house owned by Vick. They call animal- control officers, who count 66 dogs and see what they say is evidence that dogfights had taken place there. Police obtain another warrant and seize the dogs and various items.
May 23: Investigators obtain a third warrant, this one to search the property for buried dog carcasses. But the local prosecutor decides not to execute it, saying he is worried the dogfighting warrants are tainted because the animal-control officers might have been overzealous in their searches.
May 27: A confidential police informant appears on the ESPN program “Outside the Lines” and said Vick funded and gambled on dogfighting as far back as when he was in college. The informant’s identity was not revealed; his face was not shown and his voice was distorted in the segment.
June 7: More than a dozen representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richmond, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Virginia State Police converge on the Moonlight Road property, apparently executing a sealed federal search warrant.
July 2: Authorities allege in court documents that a dogfighting venture called Bad Newz Kennels had operated at the Vick property for the past five years. The U.S. Attorney’s Office files papers seeking federal government ownership of about 53 pit bulls that were among the dogs seized from Vick’s property.
July 6: Federal authorities conduct another search of the Vick property, apparently again seeking evidence of dogfighting in the form of animal remains.
July 17: The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Richmond announces that Vick, Peace, Phillips and Taylor have been indicted by a federal grand jury in connection with dogfighting.
July 23: Vick is ordered by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to stay away from the Atlanta Falcons’ training camp until the league reviews the dogfighting charges against him.
As it stands now, there are 4 cooperating witnesses, and 3 defendants that are pleading guilty...so there are a total of 7 people who are going to take the stand at a trial and point a finger at MV.
Thanks for your reply. I googled around and found another article laying out the material facts that the prosecutors are relying on. I am a bit troubled by a few things still.
One, the facts (including the ones you provided) interpose what Vick did with what the “Kennelz” boys did. That’s a bit disingenuous.
What’s clear is the Vick bought the house. Not unusual for someone who strikes it rich to throw money towards his old friends, even no-good friends, if one has very poor judgment.
Seems like Taylor was the one who picked the house out. And Vick wrote a check, which was BTW trivial money for him.
Who acquired the dogs? It said Vick and others — what was Vick’s direct role — there is a bit of indirection in those words.
The storyline says that the Kennelz take part in the fdogfighting, not Vick personally — what does that mean, or elude?
There’s a dogfight at the property. Doesn’t say, though, that Vick was even there at the time. Why?
Then it says that VIck and his buds took part in dogfights at other locations. Doesn’t say that Vick even attended the fights. What does “take part” actually mean? It’s too important an allegation to be imprecise about the details here.
As far as the Feds ‘rolling up’ the witnesses, I guess it bothers me that they are rolling up toward the most famous defendant instead of the most guilty or most involved defendant. It makes me wonder a little about the self-promotional motive of the prosecutor.