The Maine State Harness Racing Commission today disapproved a consent agreement for L. Alex MacDonald for violating rule 17 section 3.2. The commission then recommended the terms for a second consent agreement. The parameters of the second consent agreement include a driving suspension to July 15, a ceiling of $500 in fines for 2010, a ceiling of $500 in fines for 2011, and not being allowed to use a whip when he returns to driving after his suspension for the 2010 season. He has the option to accept the second consent agreement, or return to the commission for a full hearing.

The suspensions arise from violation of rule 17 section 3.2 which states “When in the course of the previous two racing years, a person has violated Maine Harness Racing Commission rules and been fined a total of $2,000 or more or has been subject to license suspensions of 250 or more days, regardless of the nature of the violations resulting in the fines or suspensions, the Commission shall consider that grounds for suspension or shall refuse to renew a person’s license(s).

With his legal council, Craig Rancourt, at his side, MacDonald came in front of the commission to discuss the consent agreement that was offered to him earlier this season.

The process of a consent agreement was explained to the public. The commission’s executive secretary, Henry Jackson, has the authority of the commission to offer a consent agreement to a licensee that has violated the rules, but it is not valid until the commission reviews and approves the consent agreement.

In this case, the commission took into consideration the nature of the penalties accrued by MacDonald over the course of 2008 & 2009. MacDonald was reprimanded at length by commission chairman George McHale concerning MacDonald’s numerous violations that involved whipping and cutting horses with the whip. They also took into consideration the penalties assessed to W. Drew Campbell and Robert Dinning last month for violating the same rule 17.3.2.

MacDonald did sign the original agreement before the Campbell and Dinning decisions, but since the commission had not reviewed the original consent agreement, they had the right not to approve the first consent agreement.

The commission voted unanimously to disapprove the consent agreement.

In other matters before the commission, an adjudicatory hearing was held for the appeal of an interference penalty given to driver Shawn Gray. Gray admitted that while the infraction did occur, the penalty of a 3-day suspension was inconsistent with other penalties for the same infraction.

The commission stated that it is within the authority of the judges to apply penalties at their discretion based upon the severity of the infraction and denied Gray’s appeal. He will serve the suspension April 30 to May 2, 2010.

The other adjudicatory hearing held today was for driver Ron Cushing’s appeal of an interference infraction. That hearing was postponed to the next commission hearing. Scarborough Downs Presiding Judge Steve Mancine wanted to produce evidence of the race video into the hearing, but due to technical difficulties, was unable to. The commission then ruled to recess the hearing until the next commission meeting in May.

The third adjudicatory hearing for Christopher Lefebvre’s license renewal and the discussion of 2010 capital improvements were moved to a future meeting.