Dogfighting case against ‘Cowboy’ LeShon Johnson to face national scrutiny

By John Dobberstein, Editor

LeShon Eugene Johnson’s Facebook page over the last 2 years shows many happy, family-oriented photos and videos of him posing with children, participating on a BMX team, marrying a Tulsa insurance agent and more.

But U.S. Department of Justice prosecutors allege Johnson, 54, engaged in heinous crimes involving pit bulls and pit bull-type dogs while running and profiting from dogfighting enterprises in Broken Arrow and Haskell.

The Haskell native and former NFL player was indicted by a grand jury in U.S. District Court in Muskogee with violating dog-fighting prohibitions of the federal Animal Welfare Act. This includes possessing 190 pit bull-type dogs for use in an animal fighting venture and, for selling, transporting and delivering a dog for use in animal fighting.

Last fall, FBI agents and the U.S. Marshall’s Service raided the two properties and hauled the dogs away, in what is believed to be the largest number ever seized from a single person in a federal dogfighting case.

Johnson’s court-appointed Claremore attorney, Courtney Jordan, declined to comment Wednesday on the charges filed against Johnson, who was released on his own recognizance after appearing in court.

Johnson has pleaded not guilty to the charges, and a trial date has been set for May 5 before U.S. District Judge John Heil III.

Legal Battle Brewing

According to court documents, Johnson ran a dog fighting operation known as “Mal Kant Kennels” in both Broken Arrow and Haskell. The indictment against Johnson identifies 19 dogs that he allegedly owned for the purpose of dogfighting operations.

Prosecutors allege Johnson selectively bred “champion” and “grand champion” fighting dogs — dogs that have respectively won three or five fights — to produce offspring with fighting traits and abilities desired by him and others for use in dog fights.

Johnson marketed and sold stud rights and offspring from winning fighting dogs to other dog fighters looking to incorporate the Mal Kant Kennels “bloodline” into their own dog fighting operations, prosecutors said. His trafficking of fighting dogs to other dog fighters across the country contributed to the growth of the dogfighting industry and allowed Johnson to profit financially, prosecutors added.

Federal law prohibits fighting dogs in a venture that effects interstate commerce, as well as possessing, training, transporting, delivering, selling, purchasing or receiving dogs for fighting purposes. If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum penalty on each count of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Before any trial or jury selection, Johnson and his attorney may be facing an uphill battle in the court of public opinion as well as before a judge. Animal rights activists are already seething, especially since Johnson was arrested for the same behavior 20 years ago and received a deferred sentence from a Hughes County judge.

The indictment this week has drawn parallels to the 2007 arrest and conviction of former NFL quarterback Michael Vick for his involvement in “Bad Newz Kennels,” a dogfighting operation that brought national attention to animal abuse.

Court records describe evidence collected by FBI agents and prosecutors that may be presented against Johnson. His lawyer will be receiving copies of texts, emails, social media content, audio and video files, Cash App records and documentary evidence for the dogs seized in the raids.

FBI agents in Shreveport, La., are conducting a “full extraction” of information from Johnson’s cell phone and they expect the final extraction report to be “voluminous,” according to court records. Federal prosecutors also plan to call at least three expert witnesses should the case go to trial, court records show.

Light Sentence

In the early 1990s, ‘Cowboy’ Johnson was wrapping up a short but brilliant career at Northern Illinois University, becoming the first football player in the school’s history to be chosen as an All-American.

In a 1993 Sports Illustrated story when Johnson was approaching his senior year, author Franz Lidz wrote that Johnson grew up around pet bulls and pit bulls. The son of a professional rodeo cowboy, Johnson rode his first bull at age 7 and recalled not being thrown off.

He also wrote about Johnson taming his first pit bull, Did-he-bite-cha. “If Did-he-bite-cha? saw another dog, he’d run straight at it and lock on,” Johnson says. “When you started to hear bones popping, you knew the other dog’s time was getting short.”  

Johnson finished sixth in the Heisman Trophy race in his senior year and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers. He fought off lymphoma cancer and returned to the NFL to play a few more seasons before ending his career in the XFL in 2001.

A few years later, he was already in legal trouble. He and 30 others were hit with a variety of charges related to dogfighting in 2004 after dozens of dogs were seized from Johnson’s possession at his residence in Tulsa and other locations.

Johnson, according to court records, previously ran “Krazyside Kennels,” also out of Oklahoma, which led to his guilty plea on state animal fighting charges in 2005.

Initially the charges included engaging in a continuing criminal racketeering enterprise; conspiracy to commit a felony; owning, possessing or keeping or training a dog for fighting; instigating or encouraging a dogfight; servicing or facilitating a dogfight; and cruelty to animals. 

Some of the most serious charges were dropped against Johnson, and he pleaded guilty to the remaining charges a year later. He received only a deferred sentence of 5 years and was ordered to pay more than $8,000 in restitution.

‘The Crucial Moment’

The Oklahoma Alliance for Animals issued a statement Wednesday saying the organization, “remained committed to our mission of ending cruelty to animals” in light of Johnson’s second arrest.

OAA and other advocates lobbied for legal changes around the time the Hughes County case was in court. “Prior to these efforts, large-scale seizures of animals involved in fighting were nearly impossible for law enforcement to execute,” OAA said.

OAA said some Oklahoma lawmakers have attempted to weaken laws against cockfighting, “which possibly would have weakened animal fighting laws, including dog fighting.

“Now is the crucial moment to inform your legislators and Governor Stitt that you oppose the acceptance of animal cruelty and the associated crimes, such as trafficking, homicide and drug offenses, in our state.”

Johnson’s family and friends appear to be staying silent publicly and on social media about the charges. Justin Brown said in a Facebook reel from last August that a night out with Johnson “changed his life” because he learned from the former football player how to avoid fixating on the words or actions of other patrons and avoid bar fights he was accustomed to being a part of.

“I definitely don’t agree with dog fighting whatsoever, but yes, he definitely impacted me with the bar fighting,” Brown said Wednesday.