Dutrow Lawyers Respond to NYSGC Order

The lawyers of former Thoroughbred trainer Rick Dutrow are slamming a written order released this week by New York regulators that explained why the state will not reconsider the 2011 penalty that booted Dutrow out of racing for at least 10 years.

Karen Murphy and Andrew Turro, who have been representing Dutrow, said the New York State Gaming Commission's order was "completely and utterly irrelevant" to the request they made seeking to reduce the decision to strip Dutrow of his New York racing license.

The lawyers had brought what they said was evidence not presented or considered in the case decided by the Gaming Commission's predecessor agency called the state Racing and Wagering Board.

"The Gaming Commission's decision denying Rick Dutrow's application to re-open his case for the limited purpose of reducing the penalty entirely misses the point (in) the application. The application never sought to re-litigate the merits of the case as suggested by the decision,'' the two lawyers wrote in a statement Friday.

The penalty re-examination request was made to state regulators two years ago, and Murphy recently said in an interview that there was never any response or questions from the agency during that period. Dutrow and supporters attended a meeting of the Gaming Commission in mid-July hoping to speak on the application; the commission's board did not let him or his supporters address the panel, which then went on to reject, by a 4-2 vote, the request to reopen the case to consider a shorter revocation period.

On Wednesday, the agency released a 16-page written explanation of the four members who voted to continue Dutrow's minimum 10-year license revocation, dismissing point-by-point the various issues raised by his attorneys. The order said the claims were either not proven, not presented in a timely manner while the case was before a hearing officer and the board in 2011, or were "collateral" issues.

Dutrow was given his license revocation and a $50,000 penalty after one of his horses tested positive for a banned drug and hypodermic needles were found in a desk drawer in a Dutrow barn at Aqueduct Racetrack. The board in 2011 said it was leveling the stiff penalty because of what it called a pattern of violations by the former trainer.

Murphy and Turro said the Gaming Commission, at its mid-July board meeting, did not include an agenda item about Dutrow's application, even though it took a formal vote rejecting the application. Moreover, the board failed to identify on the record that Dutrow and eight supporters were in attendance at the meeting.

"The decision to deny the application was simply read from a script and provided no reasoning whatsoever. Now, almost a month later, the reasons stated by the commission in support of its denial are, in fact, completely and utterly irrelevant to the application that was before it,'' the two lawyers said today in a written statement.

The lawyers said the Gaming Commission also did not provide them with a copy of the written order until after the agency released the document to the media.

"This is not how the government is supposed to conduct people's business, especially when addressing an individual's basic rights,'' Murphy and Turro said.

Murphy added that there was never, as the order said, any admission of culpability on Dutrow's part in the case. 

Dutrow's appeal of the 2011 decision by regulators ended in 2013 when the state's top court declined to take the case. Dutrow's lawyers were seeking to get the state to amend the 2011 penalty to the 5 1/2 years he has already served.