Felon pleads not guilty to cockfighting charge
At least 200 chickens found on Watsonville site
SANTA CRUZ >> A felon with a rap sheet going back decades has pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen charges stemming from the takedown of an illegal Watsonville cockfighting operation.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office arrested Brett Miller, 58, and Angie Gonzalez, 21, after serving a search warrant on property off rural Ranport Road in Watsonville. Gonzalez also has pleaded not guilty to charges.
Suspecting that a cockfighting operation had been ongoing for years, detectives on Feb. 16 discovered a ring on the property that resembles one typically used for fights, along with about 200 chickens, both roosters and hens. There also were several dozen cages for the roosters. With the help of the Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter and Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Monterey County, several adult dogs and puppies, all emaciated and suffering from several health problems, were seized, according to the Sheriff's Office.
Detectives also gathered firearms, including assault rifles and a drum magazine, as well as other high-capacity magazines.
Miller, known in the 1980s and 1990s as a notorious escape artist after breaking out of police custody multiple times, has been charged in his latest case with felony possession of an assault weapon, weapon serial number tampering, five counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and illegal ammunition possession. He also faces misdemeanor charges of possessing gamecock “gaffs or slashers,” possession of gamecock for fighting, cockfighting, maintaining an animal in a confined space, animal negligence and dog tethering. Gonzalez has been charged with felony possession of an assault weapon, weapon serial number tampering and cruelty to animals, plus misdemeanors of possessing gamecock “gaffs or slashers,” maintaining an animal in a confined space, animal negligence and dog tethering.
Miller was released from federal prison in 2011 after serving a sentence for robbing two Merced County banks in 1992 and for being a career criminal in possession of a firearm, according to Sentinel archives. Among his earliest Santa Cruz County area crimes, Miller was arrested for his involvement in a 1984 criminal extortion conspiracy targeting Watsonville's then-prominent agribusiness family, the Resetars. At the time of his arrest, Miller was wanted on warrants out of Monterey and San Bernardino counties and Watsonville and in connection with a kidnapping and robbery scheme aimed at a bank manager.