A Louisiana police officer pleaded guilty Friday to a federal charge for retaliating against an informant he referred to as a “rat” and “a snake” in a cockfighting investigation in Mississippi.

Hammond Police Officer Denver Keith Golmon, 37, pleaded guilty to the felony offense before U.S. District Judge Taylor McNeel. Two people showed up to support him but declined to comment.

Golmon is facing a possible prison sentence of up 10 years and up to $250,000 in fines, plus additional time in prison because he was a law enforcement officer when he committed the crime.

McNeel set a sentencing date in January in federal court in Gulfport.

According to a Homeland Security Investigation agent, Golmon used his position as a law enforcement and his city-issued laptop to identify and retaliate against the informant in the cockfighting investigation in Hancock County.

Golmon did so, the agent said, by recruiting some of his fellow officers assigned to an immigration enforcement task force to arrest the informant in Hammond on an immigration violation.

Investigators also have cited different recordings, including in which Golmon described sending video evidence showing the informant’s camera recording evidence for authorities.

Golmon encouraged those he shared the footage with to distribute it to people questioning whether the informant was cooperating with authorities

Uncle provided information to officer

According to the federal investigator, Golmon often participated in cockfighting derbies with his uncle, Bert Lester, who was arrested in February 2025 and later convicted for his role in the cockfighting matches in Hancock County. The cockfighting matches took place in Bay St. Louis.

Lester, who allegedly leaked the information to Golmon, had asked for home confinement at his sentencing, but McNeel sentenced him to eight months in prison, plus three years of supervised release and fined him $5,000.

Lester had the information about the informant, including evidence collected by investigators, because it had been provided to his attorneys in his own cockfighting case.

During the sentencing for Lester, he admitted to the judge he thought he’d just get a ticket if he got caught cockfighting in Mississippi. As a result, the judge said he wanted that sentence to serve as deterrent for others who are thinking about committing a similar offense.

Identifying the informant

After Golmon found out who the informant was, he recruited some of his fellow officers assigned to the immigration enforcement task force to arrest the informant on an immigration violation.

Investigators said Golmon was heavily involved in cockfighting matches, so much so that he had his own gamecocks he used in the matches.

Golmon was supposed to attend the cockfighting derby in Bay St. Louis the day his uncle and at least 48 others were arrested, but he backed out at the last minute.

According to federal prosecutors, Golmon was so involved in cockfighting that he had advanced training on how to rile up the gamecocks to fight before entering the matches.

Prosecutors said Golmon not only committed a crime, but repeatedly abused his position as a law enforcement officer, doing such things as accessing the National Crime Information Center database to run background checks for individuals who were not under investigation.

After obtaining information during some of those checks, federal authorities said, Golmon used the information to create fraudulent documents for some undocumented immigrant in violation of federal law.

During the course of the crime, authorities said Golmon repeatedly abused his position as a law enforcement officer.

Golmon committed the crimes between May 2025 and April, according to the charging documents.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erica Rose prosecuted the case.