Yasiel Puig Sports Betting Guilty Plea Overturned by Federal Court
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Thursday affirmed a trial court's evidence-based ruling in favor of former MLB All-Star outfielder Yasiel Puig. In 2022, Puig reneged on a pre-indictment plea agreement with federal prosecutors, and the DOJ demanded he should face repercussions for evidence revealed during plea negotiations.
Puig, 34, played for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2013 to 2018 before spending his last MLB season, 2019, with the Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Guardians. The Cuban native has since played in South Korea, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. He recently announced he was leaving the Kiwoom Heroes of South Korea's KBO League to seek treatment in Los Angeles for an ailing shoulder.
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Puig became entangled with the law in 2019, when he allegedly placed sports bets through an illegal gambling operation based in California. Although the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Murphy v. NCAA held the federal ban on states' legalizing sports betting was unconstitutional, California continues to generally prohibit sports betting. Writing for himself, along with Ninth Circuit Judges Holly A. Thomas and Anthony D. Johnstone, Judge Daniel P. Collins noted that 'Puig's ensuing bets were not very successful. In fact, he accumulated nearly $282,900 in gambling debts in 2019.
As part of a wider investigation into illegal sports betting, the DOJ interviewed Puig in January 2022 via Webex video conference. Before the interview started, a federal agent warned Puig that 'lying to federal law enforcement agents is a crime.' Puig responded that he understood.
Puig nonetheless made 'materially false statements' during the interview, Collins explained. For example, Puig claimed that he had never discussed sports betting with a person identified as Agent 1 and described a former collegiate baseball player who became a baseball coach. The DOJ asserts that Puig lied about that topic. He and Agent 1 allegedly exchanged multiple phone calls and texts concerning sports betting and Agent 1 assisted Puig in placing 'at least 899 bets on sporting events' over a five-month period in 2019.
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In May 2022, the DOJ informed Puig that he faced potential felony charges for false statements and obstruction of justice but expressed a willingness to negotiate a pre-indictment plea deal with him.
Over several weeks, those discussions led to what appeared to be a plea deal. An interpreter for Puig signed a statement stating she 'had accurately translated the agreement' for Puig, who, along with his attorneys and a federal prosecutor, signed.
Puig agreed to plead guilty 'at the earliest opportunity' to one count of making false statements. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to recommend a light sentence and to refrain from further criminally prosecuting him—namely for obstruction of justice—for conduct arising out of facts stated in the plea agreement. In August, the Justice Department filed paperwork in court indicating that Puig had been charged with one count of making false statements and had signed a plea deal to resolve that charge.
The plea agreement contained nearly five pages of 'factual basis' for Puig's alleged criminal act. A factual basis explains what facts a defendant admits related to the charge. Collins noted that while the plea agreement's factual basis mostly tracked allegations in the criminal charge, it contained additional facts that Puig allegedly disclosed or acknowledged. Those additions concerned a photo, a copy of a cashier's check and an audio message Puig allegedly sent through WhatsApp in 2022 in which he assured an identified person that he didn't tell the feds anything incriminating about that person.
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The plea agreement also featured a waiver provision outlining the potential impact of Puig breaching the agreement. Puig agreed to waive any legal protections for suppression or exclusion of new information in the factual basis. That provision is problematic, Collins explained, since Federal Rule of Evidence 410 renders inadmissible evidence of 'a statement made during plea negotiations with an attorney for the prosecuting authority' when the defendant participated in the plea discussions and when those discussions 'did not result in a guilty plea.'
That language became very relevant in November 2022, when Puig notified the DOJ and the trial judge that he was withdrawing from the plea agreement and that he would not enter a guilty plea. His attorney explained that she and Puig had uncovered additional evidence that undermined some of the factual basis and strengthened Puig's legal defenses.
In response, the DOJ said Puig breached his plea agreement and, given the waiver provision that the player signed, Puig had waived legal protections regarding incriminating statements made during the plea negotiations. The DOJ then obtained a new indictment, which added a charge for obstruction of justice and claimed Puig impeded the feds by providing false information and concealing key evidence.
Not so fast, Puig maintained. He hadn't pleaded guilty. He had only agreed to plead guilty.
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U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee concurred, finding that the court hadn't formally accepted the terms of Puig's plea deal because the court had 'never accepted' them. Therefore, the plea deal's terms—including the waiver—were unenforceable. The DOJ was thus informed prosecutors couldn't introduce at trial the factual basis recited in the plea agreement.
The DOJ appealed to the Ninth Circuit, but the appellate court likewise found Puig hasn't waived his right to challenge the admissibility of evidence and testimony related to the plea agreement. Collins wrote the waiver was 'expressly contingent' on a court approving the plea and finding there was a breach. 'The waiver, by its own terms,' Collins wrote, 'therefore did not apply' and thus 'the factual basis of Puig's plea agreement is not admissible against Puig.'
Collins was also critical of the government's assertion it suffered a form of detrimental reliance that warrants enforcement of the waiver.
'We reject this contention,' Collins explained, 'because no such showing of detrimental reliance has been or can be made here.' He added, 'it makes no sense to posit, as this argument necessarily does, that the government relied on Puig's not breaching the agreement when the government drafted the agreement's language about the consequences of a breach. By definition, such language assumes a breach.'
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To be clear, Puig still faces criminal charges. A jury trial—which had been scheduled for August 2023 then pushed back to January 2024, and now still awaits a date—will eventually happen unless the case is resolved beforehand. Should the case go to trial, expect battles over the scope of what type of evidence stemmed from the charges or the factual basis.
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