A Pittsburgh animal shelter has filed additional felony animal-cruelty charges against a mother and son suspected of running a pit bull fighting ring known as "Menace Kennels."
Lance Cheadle, 26, who has addresses in Clairton and Pleasant Hills, and his mother, Roslyn Winters, of Clairton, face a hearing on two charges each of training, transferring and selling pit bulls for fighting purposes. A hearing will be scheduled before District Justice Mary Grace Boyle of Pleasant Hills.
Cheadle faces a Jan. 2 trial in Allegheny County court for his arrest in September 2000 on charges of operating the dogfighting ring.
Clairton police said they discovered 11 dogs and suspected tools of a dogfighting operation in a family home Aug. 16, 2000, while executing a search warrant during a drug raid.
Kathy Hecker, a humane-society police officer with Pittsburgh-based Animal Friends, and county police last month served another search warrant on Cheadle's apartment in Pleasant Hills.
Police found in the apartment journals, financial documents, rope and chains - which Hecker said are part of the dogfighting operation - and a pair of work boots covered in what officers believe is dog blood.
Winters also was arrested last year, but charges were dropped at a hearing in January. Hecker re-filed the charges in November after police found neglected dogs and evidence of fighting in her Clairton home in September.
