Nearly 16 months after his arrest at Louisiana's Evangeline Downs for alleged “unnatural stimulation of horses,” jockey Gerard Melancon has a Dec. 18 pre-trial hearing in 27th Judicial District Court in St. Landry Parish before Judge A. Gerard Caswell.
Court documents indicate docket sounding and pleas will be heard Feb. 6-7, 2024, with jury selection scheduled March 18.
Melancon was arrested by state police Aug. 26, 2022, and originally charged with “unnatural stimulation of horses.” An Amended Bill of Information filed on Sept. 7, 2023, alleges Melancon “violated R.S. 4:175 in that he/she did possess within the confines of the racetrack or racetrack stables, sheds, or buildings on racetrack ground where horses are kept which are eligible to race over a racetrack of any racing association or license, any electrical battery or other apparatus, which might have the effect of unnaturally depressing, stimulating, or exciting any horse during any race, contrary to the laws of the State of Louisiana, and against the peace and dignity of the same.”
The Louisiana State Racing Commission has taken no action against Melancon, who rode at Evangeline the day after his arrest and has not missed any time since.
Charles A. Gardiner III, executive director of the commission, told the Paulick Report in an email, “The Commission's policy is to not proceed during the pendency of criminal charges. In the matter of Mr. Melancon, there has been no final adjudication of those criminal charges.”
Prosecutors have not released information concerning any evidence they may have against Melancon.
Melancon deferred comment to his attorney. Richard “Dicky” Haik, a retired federal judge appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1991 to serve in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana.
“All I can tell you about this case is he's not guilty,” Haik said of Melancon. “That's a fact. I'm hoping to get it dismissed before too much longer. That's all I can really tell you.”
A motion to quash filed by Melancon's attorney was denied by by the judge in September 2023.
“He was in the parking lot (when arrested),” Haik said of Melancon. “He's charged with possession of a shocking mechanism, but he never touched it, never saw it, never laid his eyes on it.
Haik said the device “wasn't found in the jockeys room. They found one in a hallway somewhere. No fingerprints of (Melancon) because he never touched it, no nothing. They have a terrible case, and I don't know why they did it.
“I feel very strongly that this case is going to be dismissed,” said Haik. “If not, we're going to go ahead and try it and he'll be found not guilty. There's no doubt in my mind about that.
“The evidence in the case log is 100 percent on his side,” Haik added. “Even if he gets convicted, the Third Circuit (Louisiana Court of Appeal) is going to throw it out. The guy didn't touch it, never had it, never handled it.”
The case has been delayed, Haik said, because the prosecutors in St. Landry Parish have had three murder cases to try.
Melancon, 56, has 5,109 victories in a riding career dating back to 1984 and includes graded stakes wins in New York, Kentucky, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Illinois. He overcame substance abuse problems early in his career and was granted immunity from prosecution in a March 1986 race-fixing case at Fair Grounds in Louisiana after allegedly accepting $500 to keep his horse from finishing in the top three. A second jockey, Jeff Faul, also was given immunity from prosecution after testifying that he, too, accepted a bribe to finish out of the top three in the same race. Faul would later be suspended six years in 2003 when caught with an electrical device at Great Lakes Downs in Michigan. He died in 2012.
Jockey Phil Rubbicco, said to be the mastermind of the race-fixing scheme, was charged with sports bribery and conspiracy. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to two years in prison after a February 1987 trial. Rubbicco continued to ride in Louisiana until his trial date, after which his license was suspended. Rubbicco never rode in races again.
In 2022, Melancon signed on as one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit, along with the Louisiana State Racing Commission and others, seeking to block the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority from enforcing its regulations in Louisiana and West Virginia. A federal judge granted the injunction, effectively keeping HISA out of those two states until other legal questions are resolved.
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