XPost: us.politics, or.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   The Associated Press Aug 16, 2013   
      
      
   Daughter of Romanian princess accused in cockfighting case says mom   
   wouldn’t watch chicken die   
      
      
   PORTLAND, Ore. – Princess Irina Walker, the daughter of the last king of   
   Romania, was hobnobbing two years ago with European royalty in Bucharest   
   to celebrate the 90th birthday of her regal father.   
      
   On Friday, she and her husband — a former Oregon sheriff’s deputy — are   
   expected to appear in court to face charges of running a cockfighting   
   business on their ranch in Eastern Oregon.   
      
   Government prosecutors say Irina and John Walker staged at least 10   
   cockfighting derbies between April 2012 and April 2013, bringing in as   
   much as $2,000 a day. Blades were attached to the birds’ legs,   
   spectators were charged admission, and food and drink were sold, the   
   indictment said.   
      
   Irina Walker, 60, is the third daughter of former Romanian King Michael   
   I. The 91-year-old Michael, one of the few surviving heads of state from   
   World War II, was forced to abdicate by the communists in 1947. Sent   
   into exile, he lived in Switzerland and worked as a commercial pilot and   
   briefly as a chicken farmer.   
      
   According to a statement on the royal family’s website, King Michael   
   expressed “deep sorrow” about Princess Irina being arrested and hopes   
   that the American justice system and Oregon courts will act as quickly   
   as possible. He does not mention his son-in-law and adds he hopes the   
   presumption of innocence will function.   
      
   The Walkers are charged with operating an illegal gambling business and   
   conspiracy to violate the federal Animal Welfare Act. Each of the   
   offences carries a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison and   
   a fine of $250,000. Federal prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of the ranch.   
      
   Authorities arrested 16 other people in the case.   
      
   Irina Walker moved to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1983 with her former   
   husband John Kreuger, according to her daughter, Angelica Kreuger of   
   Oregon. She said her parents were school friends in Europe and her   
   father fell in love with Oregon.   
      
   Angelica Kreuger said her mother is proud of her heritage — she keeps a   
   large picture of her father in the living room — but never lived a   
   lavish lifestyle. As for herself, Kreuger said being the child of a   
   princess only got her picked on in school.   
      
   “We tried to live as normal as possible around here,” she said. “Then   
   you go over to Europe and that’s sort of like all fancy.”   
      
   Never a particularly social person, Irina Walker rode horses, gardened,   
   studied the Bible and raised two children while living in Orgeon. She   
   later divorced her husband and, in 2007, married a man who had been a   
   family friend and neighbour — former Coos County sheriff’s deputy John   
   Walker.   
      
   “She kind of turned hippie,” Angelica Kreuger said. “She just wanted to   
   wake up in the morning and tend to her goats and mess with her horses.”   
      
   Kreuger said her mother became isolated from the family and the two have   
   not spoken in a couple months.   
      
   She said she had warned her mother about her second husband, John   
   Walker, whom she called “bad news,” but her mother didn’t want to   
   believe it. She said Walker made her mother feel beautiful and special,   
   and her mother would do anything he said.   
      
   “My mom’s kind of naive, that’s the easiest way to put it,” Kreuger   
   said. “She doesn’t really know the bad side of people.”   
      
   Kreuger said she doesn’t believe her mother knew the full extent of what   
   was allegedly going on with the chickens, and wouldn’t have gotten   
   caught up in such a thing if she knew the potential for a jail sentence.   
      
   “I don’t see her being there watching it, because my mom loved animals,”   
   Kreuger said. “She wouldn’t want to watch a chicken die like that.”   
      
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