Garcia, Navarro’s Florida Vet, to Serve 10 Months in Prison

Erica Garcia, a 44-year-old, Florida-based racetrack veterinarian who admitted to injecting purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) into horses trained by the now-imprisoned trainer Jorge Navarro over a several-year period in the 2010s decade, was sentenced Monday to two terms of 10 months in prison, which the judge will allow her to serve concurrently.

The sentence was the result of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that dropped one felony charge of distributing misbranded and adulterated drugs in exchange for Garcia admitting her guilt in two “substantive” misdemeanor violations of Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act regulations.

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) also fined Garcia $2,000 and ruled that she must be under supervised release for a year after getting out of prison.

Garcia's sentence falls on the lighter side of those meted out to most other convicted defendants in the wide-ranging international racehorse doping scandal that first came to light in March 2020.

Navarro himself, for example, is serving five years in prison, and other convicted veterinarians in the case got sentences between three and 11 years.

Prosecutors had argued for a two-year prison term, the maximum sentence under federal guidelines for those crimes.

Garcia had argued for a sentence of probation only, urging the court to take into account that she is the primary caretaker and sole provider for an 11-year-old daughter.

In part, the comparatively lenient sentence was based on the feds being willing to cut Garcia a plea break because she withdrew from the Navarro conspiracy in April 2019 after “supporting her employee's decision to report a sick [Navarro-trained] horse to regulatory authorities as required by law,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing submission.

“In hindsight, I realize how stupid and careless I was,” Garcia wrote in her own sentencing submission. “I don't blame Jorge or anyone else for what has happened to me. I take full responsibility for my actions and continue to pay the ultimate price.”

But the feds stated that even though Garcia stopped working for Navarro about a year before the sweeping series of arrests and indictments, she still had to be punished for injecting the purported PEDs, some of which prosecutors said she had no idea what they were or what their supposed medical value was.

“Garcia injected horses with adulterated and misbranded drugs at Navarro's request, for the purpose of facilitating Navarro's corrupt goals of improperly doping horses to compel them to race beyond their natural abilities,” the federal sentencing submission stated.

“Even after withdrawing from the Navarro conspiracy, Garcia offered for sale and sold adulterated and misbranded drugs to others for further distribution and administration,” the government wrote.

“Garcia, as a veterinarian, provided cover for her crimes by giving the appearance that her use of medications was legal and medically necessary. By doing so, Garcia exploited the deference typically afforded to licensed veterinarians and abdicated her duty of care to the horses,” the feds stated.

“Those crimes involved Garcia's participation in a years-long scheme to administer unnecessary and potentially dangerous drugs to racehorses. Those drugs included: (1) a drug described as a blood builder, 'Monkey'; (2) a drug advertised as containing growth factors and further described as having performance-enhancing effect on horses, SGF-1000; (3) a drug from an unknown manufacturer with unknown ingredients that Garcia agreed to inject into horses' joints, called 'red acid' [and] (4) a compounded bronchodilator intended to be even more potent than Clenbuterol,” the feds stated.

“At the time Garcia agreed to administer these drugs–and during the course of the offense conduct–Garcia believed these drugs to have performance-enhancing effects, and was otherwise ignorant of their precise ingredients and how they were manufactured,” the feds summed up.

In open court in August 2021, Navarro admitted to administering illicit substances to the stakes stars of his stable, specifically citing X Y Jet, War Story, Shancelot and Sharp Azteca as examples.

The feds had been prepared to present as evidence at a trial that Garcia, in at least one wiretapped phone conversation, was the one who stuck a needle into Shancelot to send “Monkey” coursing through his system three days before the colt's racing debut.

On Feb. 13, 2019, the feds stated, Navarro raised the issue of Shancelot with Garcia and asked if she would “grease the monkey.”

Garcia responded, “Got it.”

Navarro then confirmed whether Garcia “ha[d] enough monkey,” prompting Garcia to check. “Uh, I think I have, I don't know if I have two shots. It will be damn close. Let me see. Yeah, yeah, I do.”

On Feb. 16, 2019, Shancelot would win his career debut at 12-1 odds at Gulfstream Park.

The improbably fast sprinter would win his next two starts, too, including unleashing a massive 121 Beyer Sped Figure in a 12 1/2-length romp in a Saratoga Race Course Grade II stakes.

Shancelot's jaw-dropping speed figure represented the highest Beyer by any 3-year-old sprinter in the three-decade published history of those numbers.

“To Dr. Garcia's knowledge, none of the horses she treated were harmed or suffered any ill effects,” her attorney wrote in the sentencing submission. “But of course this does not justify her behavior. She understands the very real health risks of giving unlabeled and non-FDA approved substances to animals.”

Garcia's lawyer also told the judge in the sentencing submission that even while being caught up in the doping scandal, Garcia has rebuilt her career as her court case played out, transforming from a racehorse practitioner to a small-animal veterinarian in Florida.

Garcia's attorney wrote that, “She is a force for good in her community where she runs a low-cost spay and neuter program and is among a handful of doctors able to treat exotic pets and perform surgery on goats and other farm animals.”

Vyskocil's order stated that, “The Court recommends the defendant be housed in the Fort Lauderdale area to facilitate family visits.”

Once the Bureau of Prisons designates her facility, Garcia is to report on Mar. 20, 2023.

The post Garcia, Navarro’s Florida Vet, to Serve 10 Months in Prison appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Servis Negotiating with Feds for Plea Bargain

The barred trainer Jason Servis, the final–and most notoriously prominent–defendant awaiting a trial or sentencing in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, is negotiating with federal prosecutors for a plea bargain agreement to adjudicate the three felony drug misbranding and fraud conspiracy charges he is facing for allegedly drugging almost all the Thoroughbreds under his care in 2019.

The disclosure was revealed late Friday afternoon in an otherwise routine court filing asking for an extension of time to file motions in Servis's upcoming trial, which has a Jan. 9 start date.

“The Government and counsel for defendant Jason Servis are currently in discussions regarding a potential pre-trial disposition, which may obviate the need for trial,” wrote United States Attorney Damian Williams in his letter to the court.

The request for extra time was granted by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York).

The Dec. 2 filing also referenced a change-of-plea hearing that same judge had granted the day before to the New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, who is accused of his own trio of felony charges related to injecting purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) into Servis's horses and then hiding the charges from billing and veterinary records.

Chan, as part of his plea change, could very well implicate his former client, Servis, during his Dec. 5 hearing.

That's what another veterinarian who worked for Servis, Kristian Rhein, did in August 2021 when he changed his own plea to guilty on one felony count within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses. Rhein got the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment for his crimes.

Chan and Servis were scheduled to be tried together next month.

“In light of the foregoing, the parties respectfully contend that a brief adjournment of the upcoming deadline [to file motions] will facilitate the parties' ongoing efforts to reach a resolution short of trial,” Williams wrote to the judge.

The feds have already disclosed they have a trove of wiretapped evidence involving Servis speaking about his doping regimens to Rhein, Chan, and the now-imprisoned trainer Jorge Navarro, who in December 2021 was sentenced to five years behind bars for his rampant criminal usage of equine PEDs.

Some of those secretly recorded phone conversations involved the MGISW Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby, but was DQ'd for in-race interference.

One of the elixirs of choice for both Servis and Navarro was SGF-1000, a custom-made, purported PED intended to promote tissue repair and increase a racehorse's stamina and endurance beyond its natural capability. The two trainers discussed this PED in an intercepted call on March 5, 2019. The transcript reads as such:

Servis: I'll tell you what, Jorge. I'm using that [expletive] shot. What is it, SGF?

Navarro: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I got, uh, I got more than 12 horses on that so I'll let you know, okay?

Servis: I've been using it on everything, almost.

Navarro: Jay, we'll sit down and talk about this [expletive]. I don't want to talk about this [expletive] on the phone, okay?

Servis: All right. You're right.

On June 5, 2019, a call between Servis and Rhein went like this, according to the feds:

Servis: Are you by yourself?

Rhein: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just walked out of the barn.

Servis: Hey. So they've been doing some out-of-competition testing, which I have no problem with. Um, they took Maximum Security Monday and they came back again today. But Monday he got the KS. I just want to make sure we are all good with that.

Rhein: Wait, what did he get?

Servis: I'm sorry, I said “KS.” The, you know, your shot. The…

Rhein: Oh, the SG.

Servis: Yeah, that stuff.

Rhein: Yeah-no, no, no. The Jockey Club tested it, and I met the guy who tested it way back when. It comes back as collagen. They don't even have a test for it.

The post Servis Negotiating with Feds for Plea Bargain appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

With Trial Looming, Chan, Former Vet for Servis, Now Wants to Change Plea

Seven weeks before the start of the final remaining high-profile trial in the federal doping conspiracy case from 2020, the New York-based veterinarian Alexander Chan, whose client list included co-defendant trainer Jason Servis, has changed his mind about having a jury decide his fate on three felony charges for alleged participation in drug adulteration, misbranding, and wire fraud conspiracies.

On Thursday, Chan asked for and was swiftly granted a Dec. 5 change-of-plea hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York), at which he will likely either plead guilty to or enter into a possible plea-bargained agreement instead of going to trial.

That will leave Servis alone to face the jury when his trial begins Jan. 9.

The nationwide sweep in March 2020 has already resulted in numerous prison terms, but Servis has always been the most prominent name among the indicted individuals. He amassed gaudily high win percentages during the 2010s decade prior to getting arrested on three felony drug misbranding and conspiracy to commit fraud charges.

According to a trove of wiretap evidence (plus implicating testimony from plea-bargaining defendants who are already imprisoned) Servis allegedly doped almost all the horses under his control in early 2019, including MGISW Maximum Security, who crossed the wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby, but was DQ'd for in-race interference. One of Servis' elixirs of choice was allegedly SGF-1000, the adulterated, misbranded and purportedly performance-enhancing drug (PED).

Chan is alleged to have assisted by performing injections and hiding the charges from billing and veterinary records. It is possible that he could implicate Servis at his plea change hearing.

That's what Kristian Rhein, a veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park, did to both Servis and Chan in August 2021 when he changed his own plea to guilty on one felony count within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses.

“I, along with Jason Servis, were leaders and organizers [of others who performed allegedly criminal actions], which included my associate, Dr. Alexander Chan…” Rhein told Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil at his 2021 plea change.

Rhein got the maximum sentence of three years imprisonment for his crimes.

Vyskocil, who sentenced Rhein, is the same judge who will hear Chan's plea change on Monday.

Rhein, Chan and Servis at various times during 2019 were recorded on wiretaps discussing aspects related to Servis's alleged doping regimen. At times the two veterinarians rationalized to each other and to Servis that if the administered substances couldn't be detected via racing commission testing, then they weren't considered illegal.

Chan had filed a motion in August 2021 to suppress the use of those wiretapped calls as evidence, but the court denied his motion.

One conversation between Chan and Servis from Aug. 14, 2019, went like this, according to court documents:

Servis: Well, is it okay to use that?

Chan: Use what?

Servis: The SGF.

Chan: Yeah, like New York rules, there is nothing like against, like it's, you know, like it says unless it's not specifically written in there then it's seven days, you know. So like, it's not illegal.

According to the original indictment, “Chan and Rhein coordinated the sourcing and administration of SGF-1000, and engaged in efforts to secretly distribute and administer adulterated and misbranded PEDs and to counsel racehorse trainers and/or owners on the use of such substances, including the covert administration of such substances to avoid detection by the FDA and state regulatory authorities. They did so in furtherance of Servis and other trainers' efforts to administer adulterated and misbranded PEDs, for the purpose of secretly enhancing race performance.

“In connection with that scheme, Chan provided false billing records that did not reflect drugs Chan had injected into racehorses under Servis' control, and falsified his own prescription records as to which of Servis' racehorses received a particular prescription drug, concealing from potential investigators the true nature and means of administration of the PEDs that Chan provided and administered at Servis' direction,” the indictment stated.

The post With Trial Looming, Chan, Former Vet for Servis, Now Wants to Change Plea appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Trainer Tannuzzo Gets 27-Month Prison Sentence in Doping Case

The barred Thoroughbred trainer Michael Tannuzzo, 50, was sentenced to 27 months in a federal prison on Monday as part of plea agreement in which he had previously copped guilty to one felony count of drug adulteration and misbranding with the intent to defraud or mislead.

Tannuzzo, a native of Brooklyn and Queens who had 11 horses racing at Aqueduct at the time of his Mar. 9, 2020, arrest, made headlines 24 hours later by steadfastly declaring his innocence and maintaining that the New York State Gaming Commission shouldn't have suspended his license after learning he had been booked by the feds on felony charges related to equine drugging conspiracies.

Tannuzzo told Daily Racing Form at that time that he was being targeted because his “best friend” was the trainer and high-profile defendant Jorge Navarro. His conspiracy charges were related to Tannuzzo picking up a package of a purported performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) from Navarro's residence and delivering it to him at Monmouth Park. Tannuzzo said that equated to “guilt by association.”

But since Tannuzzo made those initial statements in the press nearly three years ago, Navarro has long since admitted to doping his horses, changed his own plea to guilty, and is currently serving a five-year prison sentence.

Tannuzzo was also ordered to pay $15,893, representing the value of “forfeitable property,” or the drugs in this case.

The Blood-Horse first reported Tannuzzo's prison sentence, citing a source who was present in the courtroom. The online docket for this case was not updated prior to deadline for this story, which is not unusual for court actions that occur late in the afternoon.

According to a sentencing submission filed by prosecutors, Tannuzzo “distributed, procured, and administered PEDs to dope racehorses and corruptly improve their race performance. Tannuzzo collaborated with convicted co-defendant Jorge Navarro in furtherance of Navarro's doping program.

“Not content to assist, Tannuzzo personally procured PEDs from multiple sources to administer to horses he controlled. Tannuzzo was involved in the offense conduct for approximately one year. In that time, Tannuzzo engaged in repeated efforts to dope horses under his care. Tannuzzo also displayed deep knowledge of the extent of Navarro's doping program and took steps to facilitate it.”

The submission continued, “Notwithstanding these efforts, Tannuzzo has repeatedly downplayed the fact and extent of his criminal conduct. Tannuzzo's minimization originated with his post-arrest statements to the press and extended to his allocution during the change of plea hearing. But the defendant cannot reasonably dispute the facts supporting his conviction: Tannuzzo obtained, and assisted others in obtaining, unapproved, untested, novel PEDs intended for administration on horses in violation of racing rules, despite the inherent risks of subjecting animals to unnecessary and unknown medications.”

The government had requested a sentence “at the low end of the Stipulated Guidelines Range of 30 to 36 months' imprisonment.” Tannuzzo's lawyer, in his own sentencing submission, had asked for probation or home confinement.

According to a trove of wiretapped calls that federal prosecutors had intended to use as evidence had the case gone to trial, on Mar. 3, 2019, Navarro and Tannuzzo discussed modeling a doping program based on one Navarro had used on his elite-level stakes sprinter, X Y Jet. A key takeaway from this discussion is that neither trainer seemed sure of the name of the substance that would be administered.

Navarro: What I'm going to do is tap his ankles, put him in a series every week with SGF. I'm just trying [to get] my vet to give me a good price, man, because I want to [expletive] tap every week.

Tannuzzo: You're going to tap him every week?

Navarro: Yeah, with SGF. That's what I did with X Y Jet. I'm going to call my vet up north, my surgeon, to see how he did it to X Y Jet and that's it. Don't worry man, you're in good hands. Don't worry.

Tannuzzo: You're talking about the HGF, not the SGF.

Navarro: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever. The SGF whatever. The thing that you sent me in the syringe.

Tannuzzo: Yeah.

Within 10 months of that conversation, X Y Jet would die suddenly under Navarro's care, allegedly from cardiac distress that has never been fully documented or explained.

The post Trainer Tannuzzo Gets 27-Month Prison Sentence in Doping Case appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights