Racing Board Drops Charges Against 5 Trainers

The California Horse Racing Board has dropped all charges against Wayne Lukas, Laz Barrera and three other thoroughbred trainers whose horses allegedly tested positive for cocaine between last August and January of this year.

However, in dismissing the charges “without prejudice” Thursday, the racing board kept alive the possibility that the cases might be reopened later, if the evidence warrants.

Charges against Bryan Webb, Anthony Hemmerick and Barrera’s son, Albert, also were dismissed in rulings issued by Leonard Foote, the board’s executive secretary.

“There will be some who are left with the perception that these trainers have gotten away with something,” said Foote at a Hollywood Park press conference. “The answer to that is, we cannot, with the existing evidence, meet the burden of proof. No one here is saying that the substance is not cocaine. The problem is, we can’t say it is. But make no mistake--we still have a drug problem in this state.”

The announcement marked a dramatic reversal of Foote’s public stance. When he went public with the accusations in February, he based his allegations on positive confirmations of cocaine in post-race urine samples as reported by Truesdail Laboratories, the state’s official test lab.

Confirmation of the tests was received from Dr. Richard Sams of Ohio State University, which serves as a quality-assurance check for many of the nation’s equine drug-testing programs.

However, a second, supposedly more sophisticated, test performed by Sams fell short of confirmation guidelines, according to Deputy Attorney General Patricia Esgro, who handled the cases for the racing board.

Racing commissioner Paul Deats, reacting to the dismissal, voiced his frustration in having to dismiss the cases.

“We know there was something there (in the samples),” Deats said from his home in Santa Ynez. “We know there was cocaine. But it was apparent, from talking with the attorney general’s office, that we’d never get a case.”

Donald Calabria, attorney for Lukas and Laz Barrera, expressed concern that the charges were dismissed without prejudice.

“I don’t understand why they haven’t been completely cleared,” Calabria said. “But the most important thing is that they are no longer being wrongly accused.”

As for civil action against the racing board, Calabria said, “I’ll have to talk to Wayne and Laz about it. We hadn’t even thought about it.”

Also left unsettled was the case against trainer Roger Stein, who had a horse allegedly test positive for cocaine last October. Stein was hit with a six-month suspension and a $5,000 fine, which were upheld on appeal to an administrative law court.

Stein obtained a stay of the penalties and is appealing to Superior Court. He has also begun a $10-million civil suit against Truesdail Laboratories.

Esgro, who also attended the press conference, was asked to explain the difference between the Stein case--which apparently was not held to the same testing standards--and the dismissed cases.

Because the Stein matter is in the courts, however, she delined to comment, other than to say, “The Stein case is not the issue here. And I believe it would be incorrect to assume that either the evidence, the circumstances or the tests were the same (as in the other five cases).”

The dismissals raised serious questions as to why the charges were brought in the first place. All of the trainers maintained their innocence. Sabotage was suggested, as was accidental contamination of the urine samples after they were taken from the horses.

“The levels of the cocaine were so low, it was an unusual (test) result to begin with,” conceded Esgro.

Said Deats: “Under the circumstances, with the guidelines in place now, maybe we would have done things differently.”

In fact, Foote’s office had considered dropping the charges based on the low levels of cocaine--about 50 billionths of a gram per milliliter of urine--rather than on the actual testing procedure. The idea met with strong opposition from members of the racing board as well as equine testing experts from around the country.

“Using low levels as a justification for dropping the cases would have been like giving people the green light to use cocaine in their horses whenever they wanted,” said one member of the equine drug-testing community. “This has nothing to do with a level, a ‘permitted’ amount of cocaine,” Foote insisted. “No amount of cocaine is permitted, regardless of the quantity. This has to do with the scientific confirmation that the substance found was cocaine. Qualitative measures, not quantitative.”