A Romanian princess accused of hosting cockfighting derbies with her husband at their Eastern Oregon ranch pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to one count of operating an illegal gambling venture. 
 
 Irina Walker, 61, admitted to U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman that from April 2012 until May 2013 she "provided food and beverages" for those attending the cockfights held on her and her husband's property. She acknowledged profiting from the venture, in which roosters were outfitted with knives or "gaffs," and forced to fight one another to the death. 
 
 Walker is the daughter of the last king of Romania and is married to John Wesley Walker, 68, a former Coos County sheriff's deputy who also pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon to the same charge. The two are both scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 22. 
 
 As part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office, prosecutors and the defense will jointly recommend a sentence of three years of probation for both Walkers, according to the plea agreement. The maximum sentence they could face is five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. 
 
 The agreement calls for the couple to sell a portion of their ranch by November 2015 and forfeit $200,000 to the government, representing proceeds from the 10 cockfighting derbies they hosted during that time. 
 
 The Walkers were initially charged with directing or owning an illegal gambling business, conspiracy to violate the animal welfare act and 10 counts of sponsoring or exhibiting a rooster in an unlawful animal fighting venture. 
 
 The federal indictment named 18 defendants associated with the derbies, which took place in a barn on the Walkers' Morrow County ranch in Irrigon. All have pleaded guilty in either Oregon or Washington except for two fugitives who have not been arrested. 
 
 According to U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer, John Walker arranged with a co-defendant, Mario Perez, to set up a cockfighting operation on the Walker property. Perez was an experienced cockfighting referee, Peifer said. They also brought in an assistant referee. 
 
 As part of the operation, entrants would pay $1,000 fee to enter roosters to fight one another. The fees would go to a central pot, with 10 percent going to the referees and 90 percent to the winners. 
 
 The Walkers collected a $20 cover charge from each of the 100 or so participants who attended a derby on average, Peifer said. They also sold and pocketed the profits of alcohol and other beverages. 
 
 Initially, Irina Walker provided the food, but it was found to be "unacceptable" to the attendees, Peifer said. The Walkers then brought in a woman to cook Mexican food, charging her a fee to sell her concessions but allowing her to keep the proceeds, he said. 
 
 John Walker also arranged for a Pendleton company to provide portable toilets for the derbies. And Walker provided security and patrolled his property for signs of law enforcement, Peifer said. 
 
 The two remain out of custody pending sentencing. 
 
 -- Helen Jung ||||| PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Romanian princess Irina Walker pleaded guilty Wednesday to operating an illegal gambling business in connection with a cockfighting enterprise in rural Oregon. 
 
 Walker and her husband, John, accepted plea deals in which the government dismissed charges of animal fighting and conspiracy to violate the animal welfare act. Sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 22. The government recommends a sentence of probation for both Walkers, along with the forfeiture of $200,000. 
 
 Irina Walker, 61, is the third daughter of former Romanian King Michael I, who was forced to abdicate by communists in 1947. 
 
 She admitted to U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman that she profited from a gambling venture in which roosters had knives attached to their legs and fought to the death. 
 
 "I provided food and beverage, your honor, and the location," she said. She declined to speak with reporters. 
 
 The Walkers were arrested last summer after authorities said they staged at least 10 cockfighting derbies in a barn at their ranch in Irrigon, 175 miles east of Portland and just south of Washington state. 
 
 Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer said the Walkers charged spectators $20 to enter and the crowds generally exceeded 100 people. The couple also made money from the sale of alcohol. 
 
 Irina Walker initially made food for the spectators, Peifer said. But when her dishes proved unpopular, John Walker brought on a woman to make crowd-pleasing tacos and burritos. 
 
 Peifer said the people who brought roosters to fight paid $1,000 to enter, and the pool ranged from $10,000 to $18,000. The person whose roosters won the most fights took home the money, except for the 10 percent takeout kept by the referees. 
 
 More than a dozen other people were indicted in the case. Charges against the woman who made the Mexican food were later dropped and two defendants remain fugitives: Ruben Saltos Godina, known as Chino; and Antonio Dominguez Robles, known as Tono. 
 
 Everyone else pleaded guilty, either in Oregon or Washington state. 
 
 Irina Walker moved to the U.S. from Switzerland in the early 1980s with her former-husband John Kreuger, her daughter, Angelica Kreuger, told the AP last year. Kreuger said her mother rode horses, gardened, studied the Bible and raised two children while living for many years in Coos County in southwest Oregon. 
 
 The princess later divorced her husband and married John Walker, a family friend and neighbor. The couple moved to sparsely populated Irrigon, living in a triple-wide manufactured home. 
 
 John Walker, 68, was a sheriff's deputy in Coos County from 1998 to 2003. He told Judge Mosman that an experienced cockfighting referee, Mario Perez, came to him, seeking a place to hold derbies. The fights were first held outdoors until Walker put up a barn-like structure with a metal roof. 
 
 "I had built the barn to hold hay," he told the judge. 
 
 Walker, who owned many guns, handled security. He also arranged for a company to supply portable toilets. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Steven DuBois at http://www.twitter.com/pdxdub ||||| The saga of the Romanian princess and a former Coos County sheriff's deputy accused of running a cockfighting ring in eastern Oregon has made headlines all around Europe. 
 
 Romanian newspapers and television stations wondered how a woman they described as the most discreet member of the royal family could end up in such an embarrassing situation. 
 
 Media outlets in Romania reacted to The Oregonian's most recent story, in which authorities said Princess Irina Walker sold beer and tacos at a concession stand during cockfights at the ranch she owned with her husband, John Walker. 
 
 "This is how a princess should act! Princess Irina was selling beer and Mexican food during cockfights," said a headline in the newspaper CanCan. 
 
 The daily newspaper Adevarul contrasted a description made by Irina's older sister, Princess Margareta -- in a cookbook published in 2010 -- with a recent statement by Irina's daughter, Angelica. 
 
 Angelica Kreuger told the Associated Press last week that her mother had become isolated from the family and the two hadn't spoken in months. She said she had warned her mother about John Walker, whom she called "bad news." 
 
 But Princess Margareta, in her cookbook, described young Irina as "a big animal lover" who enjoyed being surrounded by "plants, creatures, warmth and natural life." 
 
 A reporter for Adevarul opined: 
 
 "What has happened between now and then? This is the question that accompanied the shock and consternation of people who knew the princess. How is it possible that the most shy, introverted and quiet member of the Royal Family to become the main suspect in such a case? How is it possible that Princess Irina, who has built, at least declaratively, her life around her love for animals, to have participated in such bloody contests?" 
 
 Princess Irina is not the only daughter who has caused King Michael pain, the Romanian tabloid CanCan blared. According to the newspaper, Sofia, the king's fourth daughter, was temporarily taken out of line from the throne after she married a man the king disapproved of. 
 
 In 1998, Princess Sofia married a Frenchman, Alain Biarneix, who assumed a fake title and a royal name. They divorced in 2002, and five years later King Michael added Princess Sofia back in line for the throne. 
 
 Princess Maria, the king's youngest daughter, also caused some controversy when she showed up for the king's anniversary in 2011, wearing a small butterfly tattoo on her ankle. 
 
 The newspaper also notes that Margareta, the oldest and most popular of the Romanian princesses, used to date former British prime minister Gordon Brown while she was a student at the University of Edinburgh. "It was a powerful love story," CanCan quoted Margareta as saying. 
 
 Romanian journalist and TV host Lucian Mindruta wrote on his Facebook page that people should remember that Princess Irina's grandfather, King Carol II, maintained a personality cult that inspired communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. 
 
 Other media in Europe carried the news, including Britain's The Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC, Spain's ABC, France's Nouvelles Du Monde and Radio Free Europe.
– "Romanian princess" and "cockfighting" probably aren’t the two terms you were expecting to hear together today, but Irina Walker just made that happen—again. The 61-year-old daughter of the last king of Romania and her husband, John, pleaded guilty yesterday to running an illegal gambling operation from their Oregon ranch. The admission came as part of a government deal in which charges of animal fighting and conspiracy to violate the animal welfare act were dropped, the AP reports. The princess admitted to profiting from what authorities say were at least 10 rooster "derbies" that she and her husband hosted in which the birds fought to the death with sharp knives strapped to their legs. "I provided food and beverage, your honor, and the location," she said in court. Prosecutors alleged the husband-and-wife team made a pretty penny from the operation: They charged 100 or so spectators a $20 cover and kept profits from alcohol sales, according to the Oregonian. Irina also attempted to make food to sell to the crowd, but prosecutors said attendees deemed her offerings “unacceptable”; the Walkers then commissioned a Mexican woman to make tacos (they reportedly let her keep her concession cash after charging her a fee). The Walkers are set to be sentenced in October, with an expected government recommendation for the duo to pony up $200,000 from their cockfighting proceeds and get three years of probation, says the AP.