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of Information Law, NY Pub Off Law Sec 84 et seq.
Sunday, March 8, 2020
double cross no nails
Dutrow has not a fraction of the legal IQ of the truck cooking woman
perhaps he should consider seeing that the infidels and believers in ny const art 1 sec 3 are free to eork snd or bet great racing in trump's home state on Sunday April 12, 2020. stick it to sabini, cuomo and the boys.
Rick should pull out the old nydaily news column from 2003 by jerry bossert
WD filed suit against OGS, alleging that defendants violated its rights under the First Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause, and the New York State Constitution by denying WD's applications to participate as a food truck vendor in the Lunch Program based on its ethnic-slur branding. The Second Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment for defendant, holding that defendants' action violated WD's equal protection rights and its rights under the New York State Constitution. In this case, it was undisputed that defendants denied WD's applications solely because of its ethnic-slur branding. In Matal v. Tam, 137 S. Ct. 1744 (2017), the Supreme Court clarified that this action amounted to viewpoint discrimination and, if not government speech or otherwise protected, was prohibited by the First Amendment. The court rejected defendants' argument that their actions were unobjectionable because they were either part of OGS's government speech or permissible regulation of a government contractor's speech.
New York City Off-Track Betting made history yesterday, taking bets on Palm Sunday. Since 1973, when Sunday racing was made legal in New York State, race tracks have been allowed to operate every Sunday except for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. While Aqueduct kept its doors shut, NYCOTB had its betting parlors open despite a letter from the New York State Racing and Wagering Board stating that it couldn't do so. "We're not a race track," NYCOTB president Ray Casey said. "OTB's business is a simulcasting business.
" Bettors responded by wagering an estimated $2 million yesterday on tracks from around the country, including Keeneland in Kentucky and Gulfstream Park in Florida. While in the past NYCOTB has respected the law and shut down on Palm Sunday, it took a chance this time because its business is down. "With the weather being the way it's been our handle has been off significantly," Casey said. "Our lawyers felt from their point of view that we could open (yesterday).
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" The law says race tracks can't open. It doesn't mention OTBs. "I respect the Racing and Wagering Board and I have the utmost respect for chairman Michael Hoblock but I felt we're right on this one," Casey said. The NYSRWB didn't return phone calls yesterday but said on Saturday it would meet this week to discuss fines and penalties it can impose on NYCOTB. "This isn't personal," Casey said. "I just didn't agree with the board's interpretation.
" Casey also said NYCOTB may open on Easter Sunday.
Horse trainer Rick Dutrow’s last ride heads into homestretch as he fights to overturn 10-year suspension linked to syringes in his barn
Triple Crown hopeful Big Brown trainer Rick Dutrow watches for his horse on June 5, 2008, at Belmont Park. (STAN HONDA/AFP via Getty Images)
On June 7, 2008, trainer Rick Dutrow stood just 1½ miles and 2½ minutes from thoroughbred racing immortality on the dirt track at Belmont Park.
Today, he can’t get inside without a ticket.
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Dutrow, who steered his horse Big Brown to within one victory of racing’s elusive Triple Crown on that long-ago Saturday, is still serving an unprecedented 10-year license revocation and $
50,000 fine imposed in 2011 after three syringes were discovered in his Aqueduct Racetrack barn — an offense that usually rates a 30-to-60 day suspension.
No performance-enhancing drugs were found. The syringes held Xylazine, a commonly-used drug approved for usage up to 48 hours before a race. And none of that seemed to matter.
Dutrow, now seven years into his sentence, relied on the help of his attorneys and the generosity of friends to cover the fine. But his repeated efforts to reduce his sentence or reinstate his license have yet to reach the finish line, with repeated rejections in court and a deaf ear turned by the New York State Gaming Commission.
Trainer Richard Dutrow, Jr. with Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Big Brown as he is walked along the shedrow following a morning jog along the main track at Belmont Park in 2008. (Smith, Bryan, Freelance NYDN)
Yet the odds are moving in his favor lately. New Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, at the prodding of prominent civil rights attorney Norman Siegel and the prestigious Manhattan law firm Paul, Weiss, has reopened an investigation into Dutrow’s revocation and its unprecedented length.
The suspended trainer, now 60, is armed with what his lawyers call newly discovered evidence of innocence — a letter written in 2019 by former Gaming Commission steward Stephen Lewandowski alleging the syringes were planted in Dutrow’s barn. And Siegel’s arrival sends the message of a possible lawsuit on Dutrow’s behalf.
On Feb. 28, Dutrow’s lawyers sent Katz a letter requesting a meeting in hopes of a sentence reduction that would allow the trainer’s return without the expense and ordeal of a trial.
“There’s a lot of potential angles going forward but our hope and Rick’s hope is that cooler heads will prevail,’’ said a lawyer involved in Dutrow’s defense. “Hopefully people will see that there’s been an injustice here and correct it."
While a Katz spokesperson refused to comment, a source in the DA’s office acknowledged they were “pushing this thing relentlessly at this moment.’’ Several people involved in the search of Dutrow’s barn told the Daily News they were contacted by investigators in the past month.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz has reopened the case. (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)
The racing establishment paints Dutrow as a habitual cheater, pointing to 72 alleged prior violations as a pattern of behavior worthy of the double-digit ban.
“Richard E. Dutrow Jr. is a person whose conduct at race tracks in New York State and elsewhere has been improper, obnoxious, unbecoming, and detrimental to the best interests of racing,’’ reads a passage of the suspension issued by the State Racing and Wagering Board on Oct. 12, 2011.
Dutrow’s supporters, including ex-Yankees manager Joe Torre and leading New York throroughbred owner Michael Dubb, contend the trainer was a convenient scapegoat for a fading industry fallen on hard times.
“Rick Dutrow is one of the best horsemen who ever lived,’’ said Dubb, also a member of the New York Racing Association’s board of directors. “Racing actually needs Dutrow a lot more than he needs racing.’’
Since his suspension began in January 2013, Dutrow is barred from making his living in the only field he knows. Security guards at all of New York’s racetracks are ordered to keep an eye out for Dutrow, with order to eject him on sight. He cannot so much as muck stalls anywhere in the United States due to reciprocity agreements among racing commissions.
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“He’s broke, and he has nowhere else to go,’’ said Karen Murphy, one of Dutrow’s attorneys. “He has no ability to be a bank teller or run a cash register at 7-Eleven. This is all he knows.’’
Dutrow never saw the hard times coming. As Big Brown made his ill-fated charge toward a Triple Crown, Dutrow’s irreverent personality made him a favorite of the racing media — if not the sport’s bluebloods.
His tastes ran to women, partying and gambling. There was a 1988 positive test for marijuana. The cocky Dutrow, who made a habit of taunting rival trainers with “See you in the winner’s circle,” guaranteed (and delivered) a Big Brown triumph in the Kentucky Derby.
He also acknowledged the horse ran at Churchill Downs on Winstrol — a widely-used and then-legal anabolic steroid. The sport was also battling declining revenues and bad publicity over the deaths of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who never recovered from a leg shattered in the Preakness, and filly Eight Belles, who broke down after finishing second to Big Brown in the 2008 Derby.
“The whole thing was a big f----ing lie to meet a particular agenda for a moment in time when racing needed to make an example of someone," said Murphy. “Meanwhile, one of the the best horsemen in racing is on the outside.”
After the syringes were found in Dutrow’s barn, the hearing officer’s original recommendation was a lifetime ban, subsequently slashed to 10 years, along with the fine. John Sabini, a former state senator and the head of the Racing and Wagering Board at the time, remains convinced the punishment fit the crime.
“Our decision stands,’’ he told The News last week. “Other than that, I’m not going to comment on the ins and outs of the case.’’
The case put Dutrow’s career on indefinite hold and left his finances into a shambles. He lost his home, saw his bank account dwindle to $12.50, and filed for bankruptcy. The trainer currently splits time between the Floral Park, Long Island home of his former assistant Michelle Nevin and the Saratoga home of his widowed mother Vicki.
“They took everything from this guy,’’ said Lewandowski, who kept his job safe and his mouth shut until retiring from the Gaming Commission. “They wrecked him. He has nothing, nothing. And why? What has he done to deserve this kind of punishment?"
Lewandowski said he was told by Braulio Baeza Jr., the Gaming Commission steward at the time, that the syringes were planted in Dutrow’s barn. And NYRA investigator John McDonnell, an ex-NYPD detective, told the Queens DA’s office that something wasn’t quite right with the search.
According to McDonnell, state investigator Joel Levenson discovered the proverbial needle in a haystack. Three of them, in fact.
"He just opened the first desk drawer and there they were,’’ recounted McDonnell. “It was wham-bam-thank you-ma’am. Never in all my years as a cop did I ever get that lucky.’’
McDonnell told the DA’s office that he did not see who planted the syringes, if they were planted. Siegel said proving the case was rigged after all these years remains the legal game-changer: “That is the smoking gun.’’
Baeza, contacted by The News, initially declined comment and referred all questions to the Gaming Commission. Within 24 hours, a statement attributed to Baeza was released: “I never indicated that any evidence was planted in this case. To say otherwise intentionally misrepresents my conversations.’’
The Gaming Commission later issued its own statement saying Baeza “did not participate in the Dutrow barn search and
A high-ranking racing official, speaking to The News on condition of anonymity, indicated Dutrow’s suspension had as much to do with his personality as his performance as a trainer.
Dutrow's horse Big Brown (right) ridden by Kent Desormeaux, take offs during the start of the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on June 7, 2008 in Elmont. (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
“I believe in large measure it’s a character and fitness issue,’’ the man said. “It’s not one particular item. At a certain point you had the straw that breaks the camel’s back.’’
The man declined to specify what, exactly, was the final straw that broke Rick Dutrow. But he did mention a statement Dutrow made to a racing writer while serving an earlier suspension.
“I could train this horse by phone while I’m on the beach in Florida,’’ the man quoted Dutrow as declaring.
“Not a good attitude to have,’’ he concluded.
At its start, the Rick Dutrow story was a feel-good tale of a troubled man overcoming adversity to reach the highest levels of his life’s work. The high-school dropout, at age 16, took a job assisting his father Dickie Dutrow, one of the leading trainers on the Maryland circuit. The teen dabbled in pot and booze, shared a fractious and ultimately fractured relationship with his dad, and lived for a time inside a 10-by-12 tack room behind a barn at Aqueduct.
He had a daughter with a crack-addicted girlfriend who was beaten to death in her home as the helpless child watched. Molly Dutrow, now 24, lives with her dad.
From that rocky start emerged a talented trainer with a resume of more than 1,800 wins, including victories in the Woodward Stakes, the Met Mile, the Breeders Cup Classic and the two 2008 Triple Crown gems with Big Brown: The Derby and Preakness.
By the time Dutrow and Big Brown hit the Belmont, he was training horses for Joe Torre and collecting $50,000 from local real estate developer Donald Trump for wearing a promotional cap bearing the businessman’s name to the paddock.
Or, in Dutrow-speak, “Fifty dimes, babe.’’
He lived in a $2 million mansion in Muttontown on Long Island’s wealthy North Shore, purchased in part with the winnings of a $160,000 bet on the Dutrow-trained Saint Liam in the 2005 Breeder’s Cup Classic. The horse tested clean after his profitable one-length victory.
As for the 72 violations on the Dutrow ledger, 31 were duplicates of the same infraction. Many of the rest were for paperwork and procedural errors.
None were for administering illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
“No one treated his horses better than Rick,’’ said Patti Cerda, a former NYRA investigator. “You could eat off the floors of his barn.’’
Out of the estimated 7,200 horses saddled by Dutrow, the Gaming Commission database recorded just four equine deaths — and only one on the racetrack. One horse died of a heart attack, another from post-surgical complications and a third in a training workout. Other leading trainers were linked to more racetrack fatalities between 2009-13: Two for Todd Pletcher, four for Linda Rice, six for Rudy Rodriguez.
But Dutrow’s record was not spotless. There were several “overages’’ of legal, therapeutic medications, along with a single positive test for Butorphanol, a painkiller legally permitted for use in New York up to 96 hours before a race.
A trace amount of the drug turned up in the urine of Fastus Cactus, who won a claiming race at Aqueduct on Nov. 20, 2010 — 13 days after the syringes were discovered in Dutrow’s barn. The horse was disqualified, and the trainer suspended for 60 days. With the 30-day suspension for the syringes, Dutrow expected to return after three months away from the track.
Yet the case somehow morphed into something bigger between the day of the race and Oct. 12, 2011, when the decade-long sentence was imposed.
“Rick Dutrow is one of the best horsemen who ever lived,’’ said Dubb, also a member of the New York Racing Association’s board of directors. “Racing actually needs Dutrow a lot more than he needs racing.’’
Since his suspension began in January 2013, Dutrow is barred from making his living in the only field he knows. Security guards at all of New York’s racetracks are ordered to keep an eye out for Dutrow, with order to eject him on sight. He cannot so much as muck stalls anywhere in the United States due to reciprocity agreements among racing commissions.
ADVERTISEMENT
“He’s broke, and he has nowhere else to go,’’ said Karen Murphy, one of Dutrow’s attorneys. “He has no ability to be a bank teller or run a cash register at 7-Eleven. This is all he knows.’’
Dutrow never saw the hard times coming. As Big Brown made his ill-fated charge toward a Triple Crown, Dutrow’s irreverent personality made him a favorite of the racing media — if not the sport’s bluebloods.
His tastes ran to women, partying and gambling. There was a 1988 positive test for marijuana. The cocky Dutrow, who made a habit of taunting rival trainers with “See you in the winner’s circle,” guaranteed (and delivered) a Big Brown triumph in the Kentucky Derby.
He also acknowledged the horse ran at Churchill Downs on Winstrol — a widely-used and then-legal anabolic steroid. The sport was also battling declining revenues and bad publicity over the deaths of 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who never recovered from a leg shattered in the Preakness, and filly Eight Belles, who broke down after finishing second to Big Brown in the 2008 Derby.
“The whole thing was a big f----ing lie to meet a particular agenda for a moment in time when racing needed to make an example of someone," said Murphy. “Meanwhile, one of the the best horsemen in racing is on the outside.”
After the syringes were found in Dutrow’s barn, the hearing officer’s original recommendation was a lifetime ban, subsequently slashed to 10 years, along with the fine. John Sabini, a former state senator and the head of the Racing and Wagering Board at the time, remains convinced the punishment fit the crime.
“Our decision stands,’’ he told The News last week. “Other than that, I’m not going to comment on the ins and outs of the case.’’
The case put Dutrow’s career on indefinite hold and left his finances into a shambles. He lost his home, saw his bank account dwindle to $12.50, and filed for bankruptcy. The trainer currently splits time between the Floral Park, Long Island home of his former assistant Michelle Nevin and the Saratoga home of his widowed mother Vicki.
“They took everything from this guy,’’ said Lewandowski, who kept his job safe and his mouth shut until retiring from the Gaming Commission. “They wrecked him. He has nothing, nothing. And why? What has he done to deserve this kind of punishment?"
Lewandowski said he was told by Braulio Baeza Jr., the Gaming Commission steward at the time, that the syringes were planted in Dutrow’s barn. And NYRA investigator John McDonnell, an ex-NYPD detective, told the Queens DA’s office that something wasn’t quite right with the search.
According to McDonnell, state investigator Joel Levenson discovered the proverbial needle in a haystack. Three of them, in fact.
"He just opened the first desk drawer and there they were,’’ recounted McDonnell. “It was wham-bam-thank you-ma’am. Never in all my years as a cop did I ever get that lucky.’’
McDonnell told the DA’s office that he did not see who planted the syringes, if they were planted. Siegel said proving the case was rigged after all these years remains the legal game-changer: “That is the smoking gun.’’
Baeza, contacted by The News, initially declined comment and referred all questions to the Gaming Commission. Within 24 hours, a statement attributed to Baeza was released: “I never indicated that any evidence was planted in this case. To say otherwise intentionally misrepresents my conversations.’’
The Gaming Commission later issued its own statement saying Baeza “did not participate in the Dutrow barn search and
A high-ranking racing official, speaking to The News on condition of anonymity, indicated Dutrow’s suspension had as much to do with his personality as his performance as a trainer.
Dutrow's horse Big Brown (right) ridden by Kent Desormeaux, take offs during the start of the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park on June 7, 2008 in Elmont. (Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images)
“I believe in large measure it’s a character and fitness issue,’’ the man said. “It’s not one particular item. At a certain point you had the straw that breaks the camel’s back.’’
The man declined to specify what, exactly, was the final straw that broke Rick Dutrow. But he did mention a statement Dutrow made to a racing writer while serving an earlier suspension.
“I could train this horse by phone while I’m on the beach in Florida,’’ the man quoted Dutrow as declaring.
“Not a good attitude to have,’’ he concluded.
At its start, the Rick Dutrow story was a feel-good tale of a troubled man overcoming adversity to reach the highest levels of his life’s work. The high-school dropout, at age 16, took a job assisting his father Dickie Dutrow, one of the leading trainers on the Maryland circuit. The teen dabbled in pot and booze, shared a fractious and ultimately fractured relationship with his dad, and lived for a time inside a 10-by-12 tack room behind a barn at Aqueduct.
He had a daughter with a crack-addicted girlfriend who was beaten to death in her home as the helpless child watched. Molly Dutrow, now 24, lives with her dad.
From that rocky start emerged a talented trainer with a resume of more than 1,800 wins, including victories in the Woodward Stakes, the Met Mile, the Breeders Cup Classic and the two 2008 Triple Crown gems with Big Brown: The Derby and Preakness.
By the time Dutrow and Big Brown hit the Belmont, he was training horses for Joe Torre and collecting $50,000 from local real estate developer Donald Trump for wearing a promotional cap bearing the businessman’s name to the paddock.
Or, in Dutrow-speak, “Fifty dimes, babe.’’
He lived in a $2 million mansion in Muttontown on Long Island’s wealthy North Shore, purchased in part with the winnings of a $160,000 bet on the Dutrow-trained Saint Liam in the 2005 Breeder’s Cup Classic. The horse tested clean after his profitable one-length victory.
As for the 72 violations on the Dutrow ledger, 31 were duplicates of the same infraction. Many of the rest were for paperwork and procedural errors.
None were for administering illegal performance-enhancing drugs.
“No one treated his horses better than Rick,’’ said Patti Cerda, a former NYRA investigator. “You could eat off the floors of his barn.’’
Out of the estimated 7,200 horses saddled by Dutrow, the Gaming Commission database recorded just four equine deaths — and only one on the racetrack. One horse died of a heart attack, another from post-surgical complications and a third in a training workout. Other leading trainers were linked to more racetrack fatalities between 2009-13: Two for Todd Pletcher, four for Linda Rice, six for Rudy Rodriguez.
But Dutrow’s record was not spotless. There were several “overages’’ of legal, therapeutic medications, along with a single positive test for Butorphanol, a painkiller legally permitted for use in New York up to 96 hours before a race.
A trace amount of the drug turned up in the urine of Fastus Cactus, who won a claiming race at Aqueduct on Nov. 20, 2010 — 13 days after the syringes were discovered in Dutrow’s barn. The horse was disqualified, and the trainer suspended for 60 days. With the 30-day suspension for the syringes, Dutrow expected to return after three months away from the track.
Yet the case somehow morphed into something bigger between the day of the race and Oct. 12, 2011, when the decade-long sentence was imposed.
Horses prepare for the 140th running of the Belmont Stakes. Rick Dutrow, Trainer Big Brown. (Sipkin, Corey)
“This is a horrific story, such a miscarriage of justice,’’ Cerda said. “Rick did nothing to deserve this kind of punishment.’’
The numbers back him up: The NYSGC database lists 16 other instances of trainers cited for possession of syringes. All but two received suspensions of between 30 and 60 days. Felix Monserrate, popped with eight hypodermic needles loaded with performance-enhancing Clenbuterol, was slapped with 625 days and a $2,500 fine.
Rick Dutrow got a decade.
Asked to provide examples of comparable suspensions, the Gaming Commission official mentioned several extreme cases: David Jacobson, convicted of starving a horse to death in the 1970s; Con Errico and Jose Amy, both convicted in a 1980 race-fixing scandal; and Luis Pena, a harness horse trainer convicted of drugging more than 1,000 horses.
Jacobson and Amy were eventually reinstated. Pena received three years and a $343,000 fine.
“It goes back to the character and fitness issue,” insisted a racing official. “Harvey Weinstein didn’t get as much due process as Rick Dutrow."
But the official acknowledged the sentence was hardly business as usual: "This was an eye-opener of a penalty imposed on Mr. Dutrow.’’
***
By 2017, Dutrow faced $1.7 million in debts and filed for bankruptcy. He was forced to abandon the house purchased a dozen years earlier courtesy of the bet on Saint Liam.
Dutrow owns no car, just his cellphone and the clothes on his back. He still rises every day at dawn, only to find no barn to visit, no horses to train, no workouts to watch.
“I got nothing anymore,” he said. “Nothing but hope.’’
His brother Tony Dutrow, a fellow New York-based trainer, is among the family members and friends astounded by Rick’s still-positive demeanor.
“He really believes he’s going to get it all back again,’’ said Tony. “That’s just the way he is.’’
Part of Rick’s charm remains the child-like nature of his personality. Before Dutrow first met with attorney Karen Murphy in October 2015, she provided him with a detailed to-do list on how to take the Long Island Rail Road into Penn Station.
She arrived at their Manhattan meeting spot to find Dutrow chatting amiably with a homeless man.
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"The two of them were talking as if they had known each other for years,’’ she recalled. “I think that’s why he’s such a great horseman. He has an incredible gift for communication with people and animals.’’
He’s not too bad with lawyers, either. Dutrow called Siegel, once the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, after watching an HBO documentary where the attorney helped acquit an accused murderer. Siegel is working pro bono on the case.
“Not everything is about money," said Siegel. “It’s about doing the right thing.”
Back during during Belmont Week 2008, Dutrow mused about his rise to the pinnacle of his profession.
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“I started out at the very lowest level you can be at in this game, and I was happy then,’’ he said. “If all this is taken away from me, I’d still be happy because I’d be trying to get it all back again.’’
Twelve years later, Rick Dutrow just might get that chance.
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