A defamation lawsuit brought by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert has resulted in a $300,000 judgment entered against Justin Wunderler.
The lawsuit, filed in 2023, arose in a California federal district court from statements defendants Wunderler and Daniel DiCorcia posted primarily on social media platforms X (formerly Twitter) and Spaces. The judgment was entered by default after Wunderler did not respond to an amended complaint filed by Baffert.
On Dec. 15, 2023, an attorney filed a response for Wunderler to Baffert's initial complaint. Three months later the lawyer withdrew from the case, and Baffert subsequently filed an amended complaint to which Wunderler did not respond. That series of events led to the default judgment.
Once the default was established, Baffert and attorney Clark Brewster asked for $2 million in compensatory damages against Wunderler. Limiting his fact findings to three social media posts, Judge Robert S. Huie assessed $200,000 in compensatory damages. Baffert fared relatively better with his $50,000 request for punitive damages—Huie hit Wunderler with $100,000 in the June 27 judgment.
The first of the three posts was published June 12, 2023, and says, "Arrogate died cause of drugs/epo Baffert used prior to him turning to stud. Turned his brain into grilled cheese." On September 4-5, 2023, Wunderler published two posts regarding Baffert’s decision to withdraw Muth from a race: “LOL that Baffert. Bad shipment of epo has hit that barn," and “Muth was scratched cause reaction to EPO 100 %%%."
Other relief requested by Baffert was denied by Huie, including a permanent injunction that would have placed broad restrictions on future social media posts by Wunderler.
"The Court declines Plaintiff’s request for multiple reasons," Huie wrote. "First, as Plaintiff acknowledges, 'injunctive relief in defamation cases is disfavored because a permanent injunction constitutes a prior restraint on expression.'” Prior restraint by courts is highly disfavored in American law due to freedom of speech protection guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Although temporary orders directed Wunderler to cease harassment of Baffert and his family, Huie would not grant a similar order on a permanent basis.
"(T)here exists a distinction between an injunction used to govern the conduct of litigants during the pendency of litigation and a permanent injunction that governs the Parties’ conduct after the case has been closed," he wrote. "Here, the Court’s TROs and ... injunctions were meant to manage the orderly and expeditious disposition of this case."
Huie also denied Baffert's request for a finding of contempt against Wunderler and for referral of the case to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In a footnote, Huie wrote, "This Order in no way forecloses Plaintiff from contacting law enforcement regarding Wunderler’s misconduct."
Claims against co-defendant DiCorcia were officially resolved by the entry of a May 13 agreed injunction that orders him to refrain from "publishing or republishing a false statement that accuses (Baffert) of using prohibited substances to illegally enhance the performance of racehorses trained by Baffert." While the order does not make an explicit finding of defamation against DiCorcia, he agreed to "remove any past social media post that falsely accuses Baffert." No damages were imposed on DiCorcia.
Baffert's initial lawsuit also took issue with social media posts alleging the existence of damning video about the trainer posted more than two years ago. No such video has surfaced, and the matter is not addressed in the judgments entered against Wunderler or DiCorcia.
