No Charges in Horse-Doping Cases : Jurisprudence: The Sacramento district attorney’s office rules on handling of four drug tests by racing board.

The Sacramento district attorney’s office, after reviewing an investigation into the California Horse Racing Board’s handling of four horse-drugging cases at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita, has decided not to file criminal charges against the board or its executive secretary.

The investigation was conducted by the California Department of Justice after the board and its secretary, Dennis Hutcheson, dropped charges against four trainers whose horses tested positive for an illegal medication after races last year. The medication, clenbuterol, may enhance performance and is said to help horses that suffer pulmonary bleeding.

“This was very good news,” Hutcheson said. “I’m very, very happy. The Department of Justice will now review its report and turn it over to the racing board. I’m hoping that that will end all this.”

All four of the cases against the trainers were dismissed, three by Hutcheson and one by the racing board, even though split urine samples were not analyzed by a backup laboratory, according to state racing guidelines. All four split samples came back positive when they were tested a second time.

The case is not closed, however, according to Harvey Furgatch and Michael Carney. Furgatch, a state racing commissioner in the 1970s, has filed suit against the racing board in Sacramento Superior Court, asking that the report of the clenbuterol investigation be made public. Carney, a Los Angeles attorney, represents trainer Frank Veiga, who said he ran a horse that finished second to a clenbuterol horse in a race at Hollywood Park.

“My client had a horse that was deprived of first-place purse money,” Carney said. “But in order to file a suit, we need documentation from the racing board that the race was indeed won by a horse who had clenbuterol. The board won’t give us this information. We are watching the Furgatch lawsuit closely. If he is successful, we will get the information that we need to go ahead with our own suit.”

A hearing in the Furgatch suit was held last week, and another is scheduled for mid-February.

“My argument doesn’t apply to Dennis Hutcheson’s actions as much as it does to a freedom-of-information privilege,” Furgatch said.