sentencing delays | Horse Racing Free Tips

The sentencing for barred trainer Jason Servis, the final–and most notoriously prominent–defendant in the 2020 racehorse doping conspiracy scandal, was rescheduled by a judge's order on Thursday, from May 18 to July 26.

The May 4 court order got handed down four years to the date that the Servis-trained Maximum Security (New Year's Day) crossed the finish wire first in the GI Kentucky Derby. The colt was subsequently disqualified for in-race interference.

Unbeknownst to Servis at the time, federal investigators had already begun compiling a trove of wiretapped phone conversations between Servis and other now-convicted horsemen, veterinarians, and pharmaceutical suppliers, 31 of whom were arrested and charged in a series of coordinated law enforcement sweeps in March 2020.

Even after being implicated by other guilty-pleading conspirators, Servis had maintained his innocence and held out for a trial until Dec. 9, 2022.

As part of a negotiated plea deal with the government, he then pled guilty to a felony charge of misbranding and adulterating a chemical substance (described by prosecutors as similar to the bronchodilator clenbuterol but stronger), and to a misdemeanor, of misbranding and adulterating a purportedly performance-enhancing chemical called SGF-1000.

Prosecutors had alleged (and other convicted conspirators had admitted their roles in) Servis's administration of SGF-1000 to Maximum Security during the first half of 2019, when the colt rose from being a $16,000 maiden-claimer to a Grade I winner.

Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil of United States District Court (Southern District of New York) granted the sentencing date change at the request of Servis's attorney.

“I make this request for the following reasons,” attorney Rita Glavin wrote in a May 3 letter to the court. “First, the Apr. 27, 2023, Presentence Investigation Report contains numerous defense objections to certain factual assertions, as well as the Government's responses to the defense objections. Because of (i) the number of disagreements and (ii) the issues around those disagreements, the defense needs additional time to review documents and respond.

“Further, given the extent of the disagreements, the parties have scheduled time to meet and engage in a good faith effort to resolve as many disagreements as possible, such that if there remain disagreements, they can be streamlined and narrowed for the Court.

“Finally, I am lead counsel on another matter proceeding to trial in June 2023, which is why we seek a date later in July,” Glavin wrote.

The presentence investigation report is generally a public document that is available for anyone to access on the court's electronic docket. But the disputed one Servis's attorney referenced was not listed there as of deadline for this story.

Servis, 66, faces four years in prison when he is sentenced.

Prior to his plea deal, Servis had been scheduled to go on trial on two felony counts: Conspiracy to misbrand and adulterate performance-enhancing drugs, and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. He would have faced 25 years in prison on those two counts if convicted.

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Dr. Seth Fishman was not present in a Manhattan court in the final days of his trial involving his role in manufacturing and distributing performance-enhancing drugs, an absence that had gone unexplained for months. But a motion issued Friday by his attorney Maurice H. Sercarz seeking an adjournment of his sentencing answered the question. On February 2, 2022, when the jury returned its verdict convicting Fishman, he was an inpatient in the psychiatric wing at Mt. Sinai Hospital West.

Fishman is scheduled to be sentenced Monday. Fishman was originally scheduled to be sentenced on May 5, but Sercarz has twice gotten the court to agree to a delay. His latest request for a delay is the first in which he raises the issue of Fishman's mental problems and delays in completing a report covering his medical and emotional issues.

Sercarz's filing painted a picture of a client who has battled mental health issues on an off for years and was first placed in a psychiatric unit at a New York hospital in 1996.

According to Sercarz's motion, on Feb. 18, Fishman was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) where he was placed in isolation for over a week and continued to be evaluated by mental health professionals. Additional time was needed for doctors at MDC to come up with a cocktail of medications that could help alleviate his condition.

Fishman remained locked up at MDC into the spring when Fishman and his family agreed to put the veterinarian through tests that would yield a psychological evaluation. On or about April 22, a doctor identified as Dr. Bardley was hired to conduct the evaluation. The process was delayed because Fishman was unable to sign some paperwork due to sporadic lockdowns at MDC.

Bardley conducted his first interview with Fishman on May 27. A follow-up appointment scheduled for June had to be canceled due to another lockdown at MDC. After still more problems, Bardley was able to conduct an evaluation with Fishman, who remains at MDC, on Thursday and submitted a draft of his report to Sercarz. Sercarz wrote that sentencing should be delayed until after Bardley and his staff have had a chance to complete and refine their report.

Sercarz is hoping that submission of Bardley's findings may lead to leniency when it comes to sentencing.

“While the defendant will seek a measure of leniency based upon matters relating to his mental health, we submit that the public will obtain a satisfactory understanding of the nature of the defendant's condition and the way in which it may influence the Court's judgment if limitations are imposed upon descriptions of the defendant's conditions,” the motion reads.

The jury found Fishman, 50, guilty of two counts of conspiring to violate adulteration and misbranding laws and the manufacture of PEDS administered to racehorses. He faces up to 20 years in a federal prison.

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