A lawsuit filed by a fired Santa Anita employee alleges officials with the track and its owner, 1/ST Racing, sought to mislead the media and the public about a spate of horse deaths at the track in 2019.

The lawsuit was filed in California Superior Court by Mike Willman, director of publicity for Santa Anita for 19 years until he was terminated in March. The defendants include Santa Anita, track owner 1/ST Racing, 1/ST Racing chairperson and CEO Belinda Stronach and Aidan Butler, president of 1/ST Racing.

The suit, reported earlier by John Cherwa of the Los Angeles Times, claimed Willman was fired because he used a profanity in a conversation with a subordinate in March 2024.

Willman admitted using the profanity in a joke and claimed that much more serious misbehavior occurred regularly at the track. He also alleged that the incident provided management with “a colorable excuse” to terminate him.

The lawsuit claimed that the underlying reason for Willman’s termination related to his actions in 2019, when 37 horses died in training or racing at Santa Anita.

Track officials sought to implicate horsemen in the deaths, according to the lawsuit, turning attention away from other possible factors such as surface condition, soils and extreme weather.

The defendants “directly and indirectly instructed (Willman) to mislead government investigators, regulators and the public about what was really going on and at a minimum confuse and obfuscate so that the public would never find out the reasons why so many horses were dying,” the lawsuit claimed.

Willman alleged the defendants “began a strategy to undermine and discredit (Willman’s) credibility when they realized that he would not fraudulently mislead the regulators and the public about the numerous horse fatalities that kept occurring.”

Willman admitted to using the profanity on March 3, 2024. He said he was placed on administrative leave two days later and was told that he would be denied access to Santa Anita pending the results of an investigation.

The suit claimed that company policy called for an infraction to be first addressed with a verbal warning, then counseling and a written warning. Further bad conduct could lead to suspension and eventually termination.

Willman was terminated on March 22, according to the lawsuit, which claimed “no honest or credible investigation was undertaken.”

The lawsuit claimed the termination was retaliation against Willman and that the defendants acted “with malice, fraud and oppression to defame and destroy (Willman’s) reputation and career.”

These steps allegedly included banning him from anywhere at Santa Anita for any purpose, opposing his ability to collect unemployment insurance and interfering with his ability to work as a jockey agent.

The lawsuit sought damages for lost employment income and benefits. general damages for pain and suffering, attorneys fees and other costs.