Disgraced trainer Jorge Navarro withdrew his plea of not guilty to two felony charges of drug adulteration and misbranding conspiracy on Aug. 11 and entered a guilty plea to one charge of the same offense. In a video conference before District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil, Navarro admitted he administered and directed others to administer non-Food and Drug Administration approved misbranded and/or adulterated drugs to improve the performance of racehorses under his care. He also said he took specific actions to avoid detection of those drugs, including using drugs he believed were not testable and working with veterinarians to falsify bills sent to owners, hiding the administration of illegal drugs.
At Wednesday's hearing, Navarro admitted he administered illegal medications to racehorses between 2016 and March 2020, including top runners X Y Jet, War Story, Shancelot, Sharp Azteca, and Nanoosh. Specifically, he admitted that he gave X Y Jet “blood building” substances before an allowance optional claiming race on Feb. 13, 2019, at Gulfstream Park and the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen.
X Y Jet died suddenly in January 2020, at which point he had earned over $3 million. Navarro said at the time the horse was “part of my family.”
Additionally, Navarro admitted he gave bronchodilators to co-defendant Jason Servis. Servis recently filed a motion seeking to have wiretaps taken by the FBI suppressed on the basis that the federal agency was misleading at the time of its application for those wiretaps.
Navarro said he shipped a blood doping agent from his home in Florida to co-defendant Michael Tannuzzo in New Jersey, and also that he gave drugs to co-defendant Marcos Zulueta. When asked whether he provided drugs to other trainers, Navarro paused and said, “I don't recall” before saying he had provided bronchodilators to Servis.
The misbranded or adulterated substances included blood doping agents, vasodilators, misbranded bronchodilators, “bleeder pills” and SGF-1000, according to Navarro. The blood doping agents were produced by Seth Fishman and Gregory Skelton, per Navarro. Some of the substances, he said, were shipped in from outside the United States, including Panama and the Dominican Republic. Navarro did not clarify which substances originated outside the U.S.
Had the case proceeded to trial, prosecutors revealed they had a recording of a phone conversation between Navarro and an unidentified owner of Nanoosh made in May 2019 in which Navarro and the owner agreed to continue giving the horse illegal drugs in hopes of improving his performance. Nanoosh, who was owned in partnership between Zayat Stables, Rockingham Ranch, and David A. Bernsen, was the winner of the Zia Park Derby. In May 2019 he finished sixth in the G3 Salvator Mile and would later be third in his final career start in an allowance optional claiming race.
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Vyskocil did not sentence Navarro at the Aug. 11 hearing but did outline the parameters of the sentencing guidelines that he agreed to in his plea deal with prosecutors. According to statute, the charge he pleaded guilty to comes with a maximum prison sentence of five years, and that was the maximum outlined in the sentencing guidelines. However, Vyskocil made it clear that she could choose to assign penalties beyond the sentencing guidelines and this would not empower Navarro to withdraw his plea.
Navarro could also face a period of supervised release after serving his prison sentence, and that release may come with a number of conditions. Violation of those conditions would result in Navarro going back to prison with no credit for time served on supervised release.
There are a number of elements to Navarro's crimes which had suggested a longer sentence in federal prison. The government uses a formula to help suggest a possible sentence depending on aggravating or mitigating factors, and the elements of Navarro's crime could have escalated his prison sentence to 14 to 17.5 years, but Vyskocil said the maximum allowed by statute was five, and that's what was written into the agreement Navarro signed with prosecutors. Aggravating factors or “enhancements” in Navarro's case included his use of “sophisticated means” to conceal his crimes, his abuse of public trust, and his role as an organizer of the conspiracy.
Federal prison sentences, according to Vyskocil, require that at least 85 percent of the sentence be served; although a prisoner may have the sentence shortened slightly for good behavior, they are not eligible for parole.
There are also likely to be financial penalties to Navarro as a result of his plea. He agreed he will be subject to a fine ranging from $40,000 to $400,000. He has also agreed to forfeit $70,000, and is further on the hook for $25,860,514 in restitution payments. The latter amount represents the amount of purse money won by Navarro's horses as a result of his crime. As with fellow defendant Dr. Kristian Rhein, prosecutors will provide a list of victims of the crime at the time of sentencing, which is scheduled to take place in December.
Vyskocil also noted that Navarro may face additional consequences to his guilty plea as a result of his immigration status. Navarro, 46, is not a citizen of the U.S. but is a citizen of Panama. Vyskocil said immigration authorities could choose to detain or deport him at the conclusion of his prison sentence.
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