Cockfighting charges led a Shenandoah Valley sheriff to become the latest high-profile target of a public corruption prosecution by the U.S. attorney's office based in Roanoke.

Daniel W. Presgraves, who was elected Page County sheriff in 2000, was arrested Thursday at his home in Luray and charged with 22 federal offenses that included racketeering, sexual harassment and assaults on employees, and misuse of inmate labor.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia Julia Dudley held a news conference in Charlottesville to call the charges "a violation of what we all hold sacred -- the trust we put in our elected officials." She said the cockfighting and bribery that prompted a joint state and federal investigation turned out to be "just the outer layer of broader criminal conduct."

Dudley also announced the indictment of Chester W. Fannon III, the immediate past president of the Virginia Gamefowl Breeders Association, and the association itself on charges related to federal campaign contribution violations and conspiring to sponsor animal fights.

Presgraves, 46, entered a plea of not guilty and was released on a $50,000 bond that required he not perform any duties as sheriff or go to the sheriff's office.

Presgraves' attorney, David Barger of McLean, said much of the 42-page indictment unsealed Thursday was aimed at "trashing the sheriff's reputation" and involved unconnected allegations.

Similarly, Fannon's attorney, Edward MacMahon of Middleburg, said that as far as he knew, his client had never met Presgraves and should not be part of the same case.

The Page County indictments follow successful federal prosecutions in recent years of the Henry County sheriff and a dozen of his officers on charges linked to drug sales and other offenses, of Lynchburg's mayor for fraud, and of Buchanan County officials in a case of bribery and contract rigging.

Federal courts watcher Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, saw the Page County prosecution amid a pattern of federal animal cruelty cases that includes the dogfighting charges against former Virginia Tech and Atlanta Falcons football star Michael Vick in the Eastern District of Virginia.

"I think there's a lot of emphasis in U.S. attorneys' offices on this across the country," Tobias said, adding that the range of charges in Page County adds another dimension to the case.

According to the indictment, Presgraves called cockfighting a "heritage" in Page County and took a bribe from operators of a cockfighting pit to overlook illegal activities there. He also is said to have accepted bribes from an unnamed corporation, in return tipping off the business about an investigation into its activities, the indictment said.

Presgraves is accused of taking more than $100,000 that should have gone to the sheriff's office.

He is accused of sexually harassing or assaulting a dozen women who worked for the sheriff's office, including pressuring several to have sex with him and telling them not to talk about it later but to "take it to the grave."

The indictment said Presgraves had jail inmates and sheriff's office employees perform work for his construction company.

In September 2007, after operators of a cockfighting pit were charged and accused of bribing a then-unidentified public official, the sheriff issued a statement saying he had done nothing more than accept a legal campaign contribution.

"There are many false rumors out there," Presgraves wrote in his statement.