Pentagon official among 2 Md. residents indicted on dogfighting charges

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Two Maryland residents, including a Pentagon official, have been indicted in federal court for allegedly running a dogfighting ring.

The indictment, filed on Tuesday but entered today in the Maryland District Court, charges Department of Defense employee Frederick Douglass Moorefield, Jr. and Mario Damon Flythe with conspiracy to engage in animal fighting, as well as selling, buying, training and transporting dogs for dogfighting purposes, among other charges.

According to the indictment, thousands of dollars would be bet on some matches, which often would end with the losing animal put to death. Among the items found in Moorefield’s possession, the indictment said, was a “device consisting of jumper cables connected to an electrical plug, which appears to have been used to electrocute dogs after losing fights.”

An affidavit filed by prosecutors said Moorefield was sponsoring dogfights for close to two decades.

Moorefield is a deputy chief information officer for command, control and communications for the Department of Defense, according to a court filing.

The indictment lists at least 25 overt acts for each count the two men are charged with, calling for Moorefield and Flythe to forfeit any property which constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to their charges.

As of Wednesday, Moorefield could not be found on the biographies page for the U.S. Department of Defense’s website.

A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington field office declined comment due to the case being an ongoing matter.

In November 2018, Anne Arundel County Animal Control responded to a report of two dead dogs in a plastic dog food bag in Annapolis. Investigators found mail addressed to Moorefield at his residence in Arnold, according to the indictment.

The indictment alleges that Moorefield’s phone number was previously identified in the contact list of a District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia private group for dogfighters on the messaging application Telegram in June 2020.

During a search of Moorefield’s residence on Sept. 6, FBI agents found and seized a weighted vest that fit a dog’s body with a patch displaying the name of the alias Moorefield used to identify himself, according to the indictment.

The indictment also details various encrypted Telegram and WhatsApp message exchanges between Moorefield and other dogfighters that arranged fight dates and wager amounts.

This is the second major dogfighting indictment in the region in the last 14 months.

In August 2022, a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia indicted seven individuals and charged them with conspiring with two others to engage in animal fighting, according to an affidavit submitted in support of the criminal complaint and search warrant effectuated against  Moorefield and Flythe. In the Eastern District of Virginia indictment, the group contained as many as 28 members at one time.

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Maryland ranked 28th nationally in the 2022 U.S. State Animal Protection Laws Rankings Report. The report evaluates animal protection laws by state, where Maryland was found to have no provisions for pre-conviction forfeiture of abused animals.

In Maryland, according to the report, social service professionals are not required to report suspected animal cruelty.

A spokesperson for Anne Arundel County Animal Control was not immediately available for comment. Counsel for Moorefield also was not immediately available for comment.