Former trainer Jason Servis is the last remaining unresolved defendant among 27 people indicted in 2020 on charges related to racehorse doping. His sentencing is coming up later this month after he entered a guilty plea to federal drug charges in December 2022. According to documents submitted by his attorneys this week, Servis entered a plea agreement with the federal government to one felony count of misbranding and one misdemeanor count of misbranding related to the use of adulterated drugs in his stable.
Servis has already stipulated to a forfeiture of $311,760 and restitution of $163,932. He may be fined between $30,000 and $300,000 for his conduct. Federal guidelines suggest he may face up to 48 months in prison for his guilty plea to the charges. Ultimately though, U.S. District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil has the latitude to decide what the prison term for Servis, 66, and the final fine will be.
This week, Servis' legal team submitted a series of documents to the court arguing for leniency in his sentencing. Next week, prosecutors will have the opportunity to submit a memorandum with their own perspective on Servis' actions and appropriate penalties within the agreed-upon range.
Defense sentencing documents typically include voluminous files of character references from family, friends, and former employees attesting to the defendant's care for humans and animals, challenging medical conditions, financial dependents, or positive community impact in the hopes that the judge may consider these mitigating factors to a lengthy prison sentence. Servis' submission was no exception, and contained numerous letters emphasizing his care of his elderly parents in West Virginia and fondness for abandoned cats and dogs. Several of his owners and veterinarians detailed what they perceived to be his talent for identifying potential problems with horses before they developed into serious injuries and a willingness to rest horses when required, even if that wasn't convenient to his training calendar.
Servis' attorney, Rita Glavin, also pointed out that Servis did not engage in the same range of doping offenses as many of the other defendants, nor have wire taps thus far characterized him to have the same callous view of the risk illegal substances posed to his horses. Servis has pleaded guilty to authorizing the use of SGF-1000 and both FDA-approved and illegally-compounded clenbuterol in ways that violated federal law. Other defendants have entered guilty pleas to accusations they used EPO, masking agents, pain blockers, and that they shockwaved horses in violation of racing regulations. Glavin indicated that Servis did not distribute drugs to other trainers (although it's clear from wire taps that he and co-defendant Jorge Navarro certainly compared notes about their use of SGF-1000), and that he did not attempt to inject or tube horses with illegal substances himself.
Defense and prosecutor sentencing memorandums thus far in the 2020 federal doping case have often provided further insight on the contents of extensive wire taps the FBI had in place on the defendants in 2019 or other investigative documents, many of which have remained out of the public eye as the majority of defendants have avoided going to trial.
Here are a few things we learned from the Servis documents:
–Although his submission is very clear that he's admitting guilt as part of his plea deal, Glavin's characterization of Servis is that he believed in the advice of his veterinary team, which assured him that his use of SGF-1000 and clenbuterol weren't illegal. In one exchange, veterinarian Dr. Alex Chan told Servis, “I'm a stickler to the rules all the time. I came from NYRA … I know all the rules and stuff … I always look out for the best interest of my clients because I'm the one doing the work … all the horses under my care they're covered, it's all legal.”
Chan would later enter a guilty plea to a felony count of adulteration/misbranding of drugs and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.
–A single bottle of SGF-1000 costs $300. Servis instructed his veterinarians to conceal its use on the bills that went to owners by replacing the line item with “acupuncture and chiropractic.”
Servis sourced his compounded clenbuterol from fellow trainer Jorge Navarro, and bought approximately 15 bottles of the illegal substance from him, though the time period of those purchases isn't provided in the documents.
–Part of the problem for Servis came from his transport of compounded clenbuterol from New Jersey to New York in May 2019. He hid it inside a soda bottle that was concealed inside a bucket of poultice on a horse van.
—We'd seen indications before that Servis and veterinarians Drs. Kristian Rhien and Chan were concerned that there was some sort of regulatory oversight into their activities in the summer of 2019. On Aug. 14, 2019, when Servis was approached by New York State Troopers and asked about his use of SGF-1000 on horses, he lied to them, claiming he only used it on “four or five” horses at the most, even though he'd told Navarro he used it on almost his whole barn. It's not clear what the state police were investigating, but they asked Servis about Rhein and about a product called TB-1000, which was also sold by MediVet Equine.
Servis is not accused of using TB-1000.
As we previously reported, both SGF-1000 and TB-1000 were made by MediVet Equine in Nicholasville, Ky., which was also investigated as part of the 2020 doping case. Substances by the same name were also featured in a product catalogue for an Australian company called Advanced Equine and Camel Solutions, whose website went down shortly after the FBI raided MediVet's offices in 2020. That company advertised TB-1000 as a product for “supreme high performance” to yield “increased muscle growth, increased energy levels, increased muscle tone” and “increased muscular endurance.” (The same company described SGF-1000 as containing “super natural growth factors” that would improve stamina and energy in horses.)
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–Servis' legal team provided wiretap excerpts showing that Rhein characterized the legality and potency of TB-1000 and SGF-1000 very differently, depending on who he was talking to. When speaking with co-defendant Michael Tannuzzo about TB-1000, Rhein said “Yeah you need to give it to them right before the race. You give like three-four days before the race. They'll freaking blow up.”
A few weeks later when Servis asked about TB-1000, Rhein told him “Yeah it's completely illegal. Nobody messes with that.”In June 2019, when speaking with Tannuzzo about SGF-1000, Servis' legal team says Rhein said, “[P]op him with this thing though before he runs. You know, three, four days, doesn't matter. Whatever you want. I mean but just – it doesn't need anything else. Just give it and he will come out of there [like] he was shot out of a ****ing gun.”
A few weeks earlier, the veterinarian told Servis about SGF-1000 that “we finally have something that we can help. I mean it's just so good for helping them … it's healing them … it gets them into the best they can do. It doesn't go beyond that … it just keeps them healthy and not get hurt during training … we're preventing soft tissue injury.”
–The Servis camp accuses Rhein of proceeding recklessly because he had a 25% financial interest in MediVet. Rhein's father-in-law, Michael Kegley Sr., also had a 25% share in the company. Michael Kegley Jr., who was sales manager for MediVet, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison in 2022. One wiretap exchange depicts Rhein telling Servis he only owned a 10% share in MediVet.
–Although previous court documents have downplayed the results of testing performed on SGF-1000, Servis' attorneys acknowledged that the Hong Kong Jockey Club did find trace evidence of “ovine transforming growth factor-beta” in a sample of SGF-1000, but that the lab didn't provide them with requested documentation backing up that result.
Further, initial testing by Industrial Labs of SGF-1000 did not find growth factor, but a follow-up test did find “fibroblast growth factor” in the product. Servis' attorney suggests that a consultant working for MediVet at the time cast doubt on whether the positive was the result of “cross reaction” and that an additional test did not find “fibroblast growth factor.”
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–Previous court documents had included transcripts of a call between Rhein and an unnamed individual affiliated with a drug testing lab in summer 2019 regarding the legality of SGF-1000.
“Either cease and desist or you're gonna go to jail,” the person told Rhein. “One or the other. What do you want to do? … I'm saying if you want to stay out of jail, don't use it.”
Documents submitted by Servis' legal team this week have revealed that person allegedly was Dr. George Maylin, director of the New York Equine Drug Testing and Research Laboratory. It's not clear from the sentencing memorandum what, if anything, Maylin did with the knowledge that someone on New York racetracks was using a product he'd advised them was illegal.
Servis' lawyers say Rhein didn't relay that warning to him.
Rhein was eventually sentenced to three years in prison after entering a guilty plea to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding.
–Servis continued to authorize the use of SGF-1000 even after the New York State Gaming Commission issued a warning in September 2019 specifically naming the product as illegal. Servis' team argues that he continued with its use because he understood the warning to prohibit “growth hormones and growth factors” and he believed the product contained neither. He also claims not to have been aware of marketing that suggested SGF-1000 contained natural growth factors.
Servis was aware that the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium had been looking into the product, but his attorneys say he was told the RMTC eventually cleared SGF-1000 and declared it was “not a prohibited substance.”
Court documents released in September 2021 showed that MediVet provided the RMTC with documentation from Industrial Labs showing the substance was negative for IGF-1 and Follistatin. What MediVet Equine didn't tell RMTC was that the testing on SGF-1000 had come back positive for acepromazine, levamisole, detomidine, pyrilamine, lidocaine, MEGX, xylazine, and caffeine.
Servis is scheduled to be sentenced on July 26.
The post Servis Attorneys Depict Trainer As Misguided By His Veterinarian In Doping Case appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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