LOS ANGELES (CN) — Former LA Dodgers slugger Yasiel Puig may not be confronted with admissions he made in a plea agreement with federal prosecutors if and when he is tried on charges of lying to investigators about his involvement in illegal sports betting.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee on Wednesday tentatively denied the government's request to find that Puig knowingly breached the plea agreement he signed a year ago. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office in LA sought this ruling because it would let them go to trial using the so-called factual basis for the plea, which details his alleged involvement with the sports betting ring and his alleged lies to Homeland Security and IRS investigators.
Judge Gee didn't issue a final decision at the hearing but her tentative ruling indicates she is siding with Puig's attorneys to the extent that there wasn't a binding plea deal for the baseball player to breach because he never pleaded guilty at a hearing and, as a result, the judge never accepted his plea.
"The plea agreement cannot be used against Puig at trial," his attorneys argued in their opposition to the government's request for a finding that Puig was in breach of the deal they made with him. "The Ninth Circuit has held that 'a plea agreement that has not been entered and accepted by the trial court does not bind the parties.'"
Puig, 32, played for the Dodgers from 2013 to 2018, and his alleged involvement with the illegal betting business started in 2019, after he had been traded to the Cincinnati Reds. There were no allegations in his plea agreement that he betted on games in which he participated.
According to Puig's plea agreement, he was questioned by Homeland Security investigators last year and lied about discussing gambling with an unidentified agent for an illegal sports betting operation. The truth, according to the government, was that Puig and this agent had communicated hundreds of times over the phone and through text messages about betting on games.
The operator of the illegal sports betting business, Wayne Nix, pleaded guilty last year. Nix began operating a bookmaking business about 20 years ago and, through his contacts in the sports world, he developed a client list that included current and former professional athletes. He employed three former professional baseball players to assist with the business.
Prosecutors say that starting in May 2019, Puig began placing bets on sporting events through the unidentified agent who worked on behalf of Nix's gambling business. Within one month, according to the plea agreement, Puig owed Nix's business $282,900 for gambling losses. To be able to continue betting with Nix, Puig was instructed to pay $200,000 to another person who was owed that amount from Nix's business.
After Puig had paid the $200,000, he placed 899 additional bets on tennis, football and basketball games though Nix's websites, according to the government.
Although the Cuban-born outfielder had signed the plea agreement in July 2022, he declined to plead guilty before the judge in November. During a plea hearing, the judge must make sure that a defendant entered into a plea deal knowingly and voluntarily before the plea is formally accepted.
According to Puig's attorneys, he rushed into making a plea deal last year when he was playing six days a week in the South Korean baseball league and the government indicated that he was about to be indicted and that they would seek an arrest warrant for him.
"Given that defense counsel was new to the matter, was operating with a 17-hour time difference between Los Angeles and South Korea, and required an interpreter to speak with Puig, and given that Puig suffers from unique mental health issues and cognitive-educational deficits, in retrospect, there simply was insufficient time and opportunity to do a complete analysis of the relevant facts and consider all of Puig’s defenses," they argued.
After Puig declined to plead guilty, the government indicted him on charges of obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal law enforcement agents. His trial is scheduled for January.
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