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 %%%."
