Hawthorne asks for RICO claims to be dismissed

Allegations of an “ongoing criminal enterprise” made by a former regulatory veterinarian against Hawthorne Racecourse in a lawsuit filed earlier this year should be dismissed, the track and other plaintiffs have argued in a response to the lawsuit.

The response, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois on Monday, argues that the regulatory veterinarian, Dr. Christine Tuma, failed to make a valid claim under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act when she filed the lawsuit in September alleging that she was fired so that Hawthorne’s management could maximize field size for gambling purposes.

Tuma was fired in July of 2023, according to her complaint, after she raised concerns with the Illinois Racing Board that her diagnoses of horses being unfit to race were systematically ignored by racetrack and regulatory vets. Hawthorne and the IRB, which was also named as a plaintiff, have denied any wrongdoing.

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The response filed on Monday takes aim specifically at the RICO accusations. It said that Tuma was fired as part of a “companywide reduction” and that the termination had no relation to her work.

“Recognizing that her termination, a single, discrete event, could never evidence the type of continuous and ongoing criminal activity necessary to allege a RICO claim, [Tuma] tries to shoehorn her termination into the alleged gambling scheme,” the response says.

Tuma is seeking damages based on the “loss of income, benefits, career opportunities, humiliation, and emotional distress” caused by her firing.

Hawthorne’s response contends that Tuma’s invalid federal RICO claim also compromises the entirety of her lawsuit, and it is seeking a ruling from the U.S. District Court judge that would also dismiss her state claims.

“If [Tuma’s] federal claims are dismissed, the court should decline to exercise jurisdiction over the state law claims against the Hawthorne defendants,” the response says.

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