La. officer charged in MS with retaliating against informant in cockfighting case
Hammond Police Officer Denver Keith Golmon was charged in a federal criminal complaint in Mississippi, accusing him of retaliating against a confidential informant in a cockfighting investigation in Bay St. Louis.
Golmon made an initial appearance Wednesday in federal court in Gulfport, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Myers ordered him held without bond pending a detention hearing.
Golmon was arrested Wednesday by the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations agents in Gulfport.
According to records, the investigation began shortly after HSI agents received a tip in February 2025 about a cockfighting derby in Bay St. Louis.
During the investigation, a confidential informant equipped with a camera attended the derby and collected video evidence, along with HSI agents. Golmon was supposed to attend the derby, but backed out at the last minute.
Federal agents later arrested people connected to the derby, including Golmon’s uncle, Bert Lester, and others.
Recording evidence from cockfighting arrests
Soon after the arrests, federal investigators learned that video evidence collected during the cockfighting investigation was being shared in a recording.
HSI agents later obtained the video, which allegedly showed a man matching Golmon’s description using a cellphone to record HSI video evidence on a laptop computer. The laptop had a sticker reading, “Property of the city of Hammond LA 7873.”
Authorities determined that Lester was among those arrested when HSI agents executed a May 3, 2025, search warrant tied to the operation, dubbed Bayou Blue Birds.
During a search of Golmon’s cellphone records, agents found text messages, photographs and videos of conversations between Golmon and his uncle about cockfighting derbies and law enforcement records.
Federal investigators determined that Golmon distributed recorded footage of the video evidence HSI agents collected during the cockfighting investigation.
‘A rat,’ and ‘always a snake’
In text messages, Golmon referred to the confidential informant as “always a snake” and a “rat.”
Investigators also cited one recording 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.
“These are the people I want to see it,” Golmon allegedly said in a text message to one person. “I want everybody to see that it was this motherf..... and I just recorded bits and pieces.”
Golmon instructed people not to identify him as the person who recorded the evidence.
“Please whatever you do, don’t tell anybody where you got it from,” Golmon said in one exchange. “I don’t want anyone to know it came from me.”
In other messages, Golmon wrote in Spanish about how “the situation with the federal police is bad at this time.”
At other times, Golmon wrote that the informant “got caught up with drugs, and he’s not legal, so he’s been singing.”
One person told Golmon to call ICE on the informant.
“He’s their rat,” Golmon said in response. “They are not going to deport him.”
Louisiana officer arrests the ‘rat’
Golmon also contacted a fellow Hammond police officer on April 29, 2026, and provided a photograph and information about the confidential informant, so authorities could detain him for immigration violations.
In conversations with the other officer, Golmon said things such as, “You wanna pick up a few illegals,” and described the informant as someone who used to work for his uncle and stole money from him.
Golmon also told the officer not to mention his name because the target knew he was Lester’s nephew.
On April 29, according to the complaint, two Hammond police officers arrested the informant at his job.
One of the Hammond police officers called Golmon to tell him that the informant had been released.
Since then, the informant has to avoid certain places in Tangipahoa Parish along with restaurants near the Hammond Police Department.
In addition, the complaint said, several people in the cockfighting community have called the informant to get him to meet with them. The HSI agents told the informant to avoid any such meetings because they were likely a “ruse to cause bodily harm” to him.
