Appeals court vacates Murray Rojas's 2017 conviction for misbranding drugs

The 2017 conviction of Pennsylvania-based trainer Murray Rojas has been vacated after an appeals court ruled that a statute pertaining to the misbranding of drugs had been misapplied in the case, according to court rulings.

Rojas was among a dozen people connected to racing who were indicted in 2015 by the federal government on wire fraud and drug misbranding charges connected to the prohibited administration of substances on race day. Rojas’s case was the only one to go to trial, and a jury ultimately found her guilty of 14 of 21 misbranding charges while acquitting her on seven wire fraud charges.

In a ruling dated Sept. 28, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third District wrote that the entire case would be dismissed after the Supreme Court ruled that the prosecution had misapplied the statute and the government’s Solicitor General agreed with the court’s ruling. The government has agreed that it will not pursue an additional case against Rojas, the ruling said.

The misbranding statute has recently been used by federal prosecutors to build cases against individuals in the racing industry, most notably in a 2020 indictment in which more than two dozen individuals were charged with violations of the statute. The law – which was enacted in 1938 under a broad mandate to prevent manufacturing abuses of human medications – makes it illegal to distribute or administer drugs that have been misbranded or adulterated.

:: DRF Bets members get FREE DRF Past Performances - Formulator or Classic. Join now!

In the Rojas case, the Solicitor General’s opinion stated that the government agreed with Rojas’s attorneys that the court failed to make a distinction between “administering” and “dispensing” a drug, and that the jury instructions in the case were therefore deficient. Rojas was accused by prosecutors of ordering veterinarians to administer substances to horses on race day in violation of state law, and of personally administering substances to her horses on race day.

“The government now acknowledges that a veterinarian who personally injects a drug into an animal under her direct care in the course of her professional practice, without first issuing a written or oral order (i.e., prescription), has not engaged in misbranding,” the opinion said.

Rojas received a 27-month sentence in 2018. The sentence was stayed upon appeal. She was banned from racing after being indicted in 2015. In 2014, the last full year in which she trained, she had 68 wins from 335 starts and purse earnings of $1.3 million.

According to several racing attorneys, the rather narrow ruling forming the basis to vacate the Rojas conviction may not have much impact, if any, on the 2020 cases, which were brought after federal prosecutors shared extensive wiretapped conversations between individuals in the cases with a grand jury. In those conversations, many of the indicted individuals seemed to acknowledge that they were using illegal substances to try to improve the performance of horses.

Most of the individuals in the 2020 cases have entered guilty pleas and accepted prison sentences under violations of the misbranding and adulteration statute, including trainer Jorge Navarro, who is currently serving a five-year sentence.

Two individuals, Seth Fishman, who manufactured and distributed substances intended to be used on horses, and his sales employee, Lisa Giannelli, went before a jury trial, and both were found guilty. Fishman received an 11-year sentence and Gianelli a 3 1/2-year sentence. Attorneys for both have appealed the convictions, though not on the grounds that the government or court misapplied the statute.

Jason Servis, another leading Thoroughbred trainer indicted in the case, has entered a not-guilty plea and is scheduled to go to trial in early 2023.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.