By T. D. Thornton
An expected plea bargain to resolve two felony race-fixing charges lodged by the State of Texas against suspended jockey Roman Chapa got pushed off the Harris County District Court docket once again on Aug. 2.
The dual felony charges of “unlawful influence on racing” and making “false statements” to the officer investigating the case stem from Chapa's alleged use of an illegal electrical horse shocking device during a winning stakes ride on Jan. 17, 2015, at Sam Houston Race Park.
According to the court's electronic records database, court proceedings for Chapa's two charges combined have now been “reset upon defense request” 20 total times over the past 2 ½ years.
After numerous delayed court dates for depositions and pre-trial conferences, Chapa's jury trial was supposed to have happened on Feb 24, 2017. Yet after two more defense-requested court date delays, notice of pleas for the two cases were finally posted on the docket for May 31.
But the defense asked that the May 31 date too, be reset, and the rescheduling of the combined-case pleas also never happened when it again appeared on the docket for July 18.
Thursday's third rescheduling of the plea date–again at the request of the defense–carried the additional notation within the record that an attorney in the case was ill, so the pushed-back pleas are again on the docket for September.
By that time, the court case will be approaching its 1,000th day without resolution.
Chapa's jockey license is currently suspended into 2020 and he still has an outstanding fine of $100,000 on his Texas Racing Commission record, believed to be the largest monetary sanction against a jockey in United States racing history.
A digital image captured by the Sam Houston track photographer of Chapa holding a tan, palm-sized device with protruding prongs in his left hand led to the felony charges. The now-46-year-old jockey claimed he was being “framed” when the investigating officer found a copy of the controversial image on Chapa's own cell phone.
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