Former Spectrum Policy Lead Moorefield Is Guilty of Dogfighting as DOD Flux Continues

Fred Moorefield, who long oversaw spectrum policy at DOD, last week pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to engage in dogfighting and interstate travel in aid of racketeering. He faces up to five years in prison. Moorefield, 63, left DOD 11 months ago after the charges were announced (see 2310030058).

Industry officials said the resignation of Moorefield and the recent departure of his former boss, DOD Chief Information Officer John Sherman (see 2406100043), mean that key positions remain unfilled as the agency sharpens its focus on the lower 3 GHz and 7/8 GHz bands under the administration’s national spectrum strategy.

Sherman’s former deputy, Leslie Beavers, is now acting CIO. Kevin Mulvihill, formerly Moorefield’s deputy, was serving as deputy CIO for command, control and communications (C3) but moved up to replace Beavers in an acting capacity. Anthony Smith is filling in as deputy CIO-C3, also in an acting capacity.

Sherman’s position is Senate confirmed, and he is unlikely to be replaced before next year, industry and government officials said. Further complicating spectrum discussions, also leaving is Ron Repasi, the FCC's chief engineer (see 2409160032). He plays a key role on technical issues. A regulatory lawyer called that development “another hurdle” to finding “any solution to the spectrum problem.”

“You’ve got interests in what the DOD needs in band and … the national spectrum, which is an imperative from the White House, and you’ve got some congressional stuff going on between all of that,” said Richard Bernhardt, Wireless ISP Association vice president-spectrum and industry. “Knowing what the interests are … clearly isn’t the easiest thing.”

Many of the DOD officials serving in an acting capacity, including Mulvihill, have "real background in spectrum,” Bernhardt said. But disagreements continue on spectrum sharing, including defining it, he said: “I don’t think the NTIA and the DOD and the CIO and industry all have the same definition.” In the past there was “push back” from DOD on anything involving sharing, but sharing is becoming more acceptable to the department.

“The question is what methodology will work for sharing?” Bernhardt said: “Is it going to be a dynamic spectrum management system? Is it going to be something that’s driven specifically by the military or by DOD?” Will it be handled like 6 GHz sharing, with automated coordination, or follow a model based on the citizens broadband radio service band?

The “tensions” between industry and the DOD aren’t tied to personnel, so a change in leadership probably won’t make a major difference, said Jeffrey Westling, American Action Forum director-technology and innovation policy. The more important dynamic is “creating incentives for the DOD to make more spectrum available for commercial use, because without cooperation from the agency, spectrum policy will continue to be stuck in the mud,” he said.

Like any spectrum incumbent, the DOD lacks “incentive to take on additional interference risks, so even with a good working relationship with industry it seems unlikely that the DOD will make additional bandwidth available for commercial use without some pressure from the White House or Congress,” Westling said: “The key moving forward will be aligning the incentives for the DOD and industry.”

Westling said discussions must go deep on the “national security risks of falling behind foreign adversaries in commercial wireless development so that DOD can fully evaluate the relative benefits and risks of reallocating or sharing specific spectrum bands for commercial use."

"With the lack of FCC spectrum auction authority," emailed Cooley’s Robert McDowell, and "no hope of creating a meaningful spectrum pipeline in the short term, and turnover at DOD's 'spectrum shop' -- plus the uncertainty of the election layered on top -- it all likely adds up to: nothing of significance will happen with federal spectrum policy until the next administration and new Congress have settled in.” He continued: “This is a missed opportunity that complicates America's wireless future.”

The DOD’s work on the strategy will likely continue as it did before Moorefield's and Sherman's departures, unless Republicans take the White House in November, predicted Jonathan Cannon, R Street Institute technology and innovation policy counsel.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek Barron announced Moorefield’s guilty plea Friday. U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett has scheduled sentencing for Dec. 2 in Baltimore.

“Federal agents began investigating Moorefield’s connections to dogfighting after officers from Anne Arundel County Animal Control responded to a report of two dead dogs found in a plastic dog food bag in Annapolis, Maryland, in November 2018,” a news release said: “Investigators found mail addressed to Moorefield inside the bag, and a necropsy determined that the dogs bore wounds and scarring patterns consistent with their having been used in dogfighting.”

Moorefield was part of a dogfighting group known as the “DMV Board,” which operated in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., the release said. Moorefield ran “Geehad Kennels” and “used his home in Arnold, Maryland, to keep, train, and breed dogs for dogfighting for over 20 years.” Moorefield electrocuted his dogs when they lost a fight but didn’t die, the release said. It notes Moorefield’s past role as a high-ranking DOD official.