Jason Servis

Two current trainers testified Jan. 27 at Dr. Seth Fishman's horse doping trial that they raced horses on illegal performance-enhancing drugs that came from the accused veterinarian. The testimony from Adrienne Hall and Jamen Davidovich highlighted the seventh day of Fishman's trial on adulteration and misbranding conspiracy charges. Fishman was one of 27 individuals charged in the case and is the first on trial. Those charged include two prominent trainers--Jason Servis, who is awaiting trial, and Jorge Navarro, who pleaded guilty and has been sentenced to five years in prison....

The jury in the federal horse-doping trial of Seth Fishman heard Jan. 25 a portion of a Federal Bureau of Investigation wiretap in which the veterinarian discusses whether the drugs he sold to horse trainers involved doping. "Any time you give something to a horse, that's doping," Fishman says in the conversation recorded by the FBI Apr. 5, 2019. "Whether or not they test for it is another story." On the call with Fishman was an unidentified individual who had wanted to know more about the drugs. "But it's not...

Covid-19 temporarily upended Jan. 24 the horse doping trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli--who are among the 27 horse racing professionals, including prominent trainers, charged in the case. As the trial's second week began, testimony was delayed after it was revealed that Giannelli's trial attorney had tested positive for the disease before the trial was to resume Monday. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil then declared a mistrial on Giannelli's behalf because her attorney Louis Fasulo wouldn't be able to return to court for at least 10 days. "I can't...

Although the federal racehorse doping conspiracy trial for veterinarian Seth Fishman and his assistant, Lisa Giannelli, paused for the weekend, attorneys for both sides remained busy on Saturday and Sunday, filing requests with the court over the admissibility of evidence regarding an equine fatality and the way witnesses must testify while wearing masks as a pandemic precaution. On Sunday morning, the prosecution filed a motion in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) that asked for permission to present evidence related to Fishman being investigated in Delaware more than...

A New York jury heard a full day of testimony Jan. 21 in the horse doping trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli. The entire morning and most of the afternoon featured a second day of testimony from a woman who worked for Fishman at his Florida business Equestology for five years. Courtney Adams, 34, testifying from Florida via video conference, told jurors that Fishman and Equestology were all about "testability." That meant creating "product" that couldn't be detected in post-race testing by horse racing authorities, she said. During...

A New York federal jury heard opening statements Jan. 20 as the horse doping conspiracy trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli got underway. Prosecutor Anden Chow began by telling jurors that the defendants had operated a black market drug conspiracy for two decades. He said Fishman and Giannelli created hundreds of drugs that were used to secretly dope race horses. The drugs they produced were undetectable in post-racing testing, Chow said, so that trainers who were their customers could increase their chances of winning races by committing fraud....

The Jan. 19 selection of jurors for the federal horse-doping trial of Dr. Seth Fishman and Lisa Giannelli was extended into at least a second day when only 37 of 75 potential jurors were questioned inside a lower Manhattan courthouse. U.S. District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil called for an end to the marathon nine-hour session at about 6 p.m. ET, ordering the jurors who had yet to be interviewed to return to the same Southern District of New York court by 9:30 a.m. Jan. 20. The interview process consisted...

An attorney who has been in the headlines for defending high-profile clients such as the convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted NXIVM "sex cult" leader Keith Raniere, and the convicted Mexican drug lord and murderer Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera on Monday got added to the legal team for Seth Fishman, the indicted Florida veterinarian whose trial in the nationwide racehorse doping conspiracy case begins Jan. 19. The New York-based lawyer Marc Fernich, who has extensive experience defending clients in the United States District Court (Southern District of New York)...

Michael Kegley, Jr., the former sales director for the company that sold the purportedly performance-enhancing drug (PED) SGF-1000 that is at the heart of a years-long investigation of an international racehorse doping conspiracy, got sentenced to 30 months in prison on Thursday. Kegley, 41, had pleaded guilty in July 2021 to one count of drug adulteration and misbranding. He had admitted in open court at that time that as sales director for the Kentucky-based MediVet Equine, he sold SGF-1000 and other products to trainers and veterinarians, knowing that there was...

Kristian Rhein, a suspended veterinarian formerly based at Belmont Park who was caught on a wiretap bragging that he sold "assloads" of SGF-1000 to racehorse trainers, was sentenced to three years imprisonment Wednesday after pleading guilty to one felony charge within the federal government's sprawling prosecution of an allegedly years-long conspiracy to dope racehorses. Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil imposed the maximum-allowable prison term under federal sentencing guidelines Jan. 5 in United States District Court (Southern District of New York). According to the court order filed in conjunction with his sentencing,...

Federal prosecutors and the legal team for Seth Fishman continue to spar over allegations by the government that the indicted Florida veterinarian should have his bail revoked for allegedly still selling purportedly performance-enhancing drugs (PEDs) while awaiting trial in the international racehorse doping conspiracy case. The latest legal salvo, fired Dec. 17 by prosecutors in the form of a letter, comes three days before Fishman's Dec. 20 bail revocation hearing in United States District Court (Southern District of New York). This latest plot twist in the case began Dec. 6,...

The judge in the federal doping conspiracy case used words like "frivolous" and "weak" to swat away motions made by seven defendants to suppress wiretap and other electronic evidence in trails that are expected to commence in 2022. The opinion and order filed Dec. 8 by Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in United States District Court (Southern District of New York) follows a verbal ruling she made Nov. 4 during a status conference that denied all of the related motions made during the late summer by Jason Servis, Seth Fishman, Lisa...