Lance Armstrong's PED Denials Wear Thin

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright July 10, 2012
All Rights Reserved.  

             Faced with swirling allegations by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency of Performance-Enhancing Drug use, seven-time Tour de France-winner Lance Armstrong filed suit in federal court to shut down the case against the 41-year-old-old cyclist.  Armstrong’s former U.S. Postal Service teammate and 2006 Tour de France winner 36-year-old Floyd Landis sang like a canary after stripped of cycling’s biggest prize.  Landis tested a T/E 11.1 ratio of testosterone in 2006, T/E 6.7 above the legal limit of 4.4.  Landis denied PED use after stripped of his Tour de France in Sept. 24, 2007.  Only after his final appeal failed Jan. 30, 2009 did he admit his PED use May 20, 2010, implicating his former teammate Lance Armstrong.  Filing suit in Federal Court in the Western district of Texas, Armstrong hopes to prevent the USADA from besmirching him in an upcoming arbitration hearing.

            Armstrong was heartened by the June 15 acquittal of Major League Baseball’s seven-time Cy Young award-winning 49-nine-year-old pitcher Roger Clemens.  With all the eyewitness and damning evidence, Clemen’s defense attorney Rusty Hardin got him off the hook.  Armstrong has until Saturday, July 14 to respond to USADA CEO Travis Tygart to ask for an arbitration hearing to fight allegations of steroid use that could strip him of his Tour de France medals.  Armstrong accuses Tygart of holding a “personal vendetta” against him.  Without responding to Tygart’s due process, Armstrong faces losing his Tour de France honors and a lifetime cycling ban.  USADA officials are prepared to put at least 10 hostile witnesses on the stand against Armstrong, all implicating Armstrong in PED use, encouraging all his former U.S. Postal Service teammates to use PEDs.

            Once Landis went down, exhausted all legal remedies and admitted PED use, it was just a matter of time before the sport’s biggest star got fingered.  While there’s always exceptions, if something looks too good to be true, then it probably isn’t, so goes an old saying that applies to Armstrong.  While Clemens got off the hook on perjury charges June 14, he’s got much damage control to do to convince Hall of Fame baseball writers that he didn’t use PEDs.  When Baseball’s single-season and lifetime homerun king San Francisco Giant slugger Barry Bonds was convicted April 13, 2011 of a single count of obstruction of justice, it practically guaranteed that the 48-year-old  retired slugger would not make the Hall of Fame.  Bond’s conviction raised racial overtones when Clemens’ judge declared a mistrial July 14, 2011, after prosecutors violated pre-trial instructions.

           U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks had some harsh word for Armstrong dismissing his suit Monday, July 9, saying the court “is not inclined to indulge Armstrong’s desire for publicity, self-aggrandizement, or vilification of Defendants by sifting through eighty most unnecessary pages in search of the few kernels of factual material relevant to his claims.”  With a judge like that, Armstrong isn’t likely to get much headway if he re-files his suit in 20 days.  Armstrong’s attorneys argue that the USADA’s case was built on pure hearsay, not known failed drug tests like Landis.  Valparaiso sports law professor Michael Starubel thinks the USADA went too far prosecuting Armstrong without blood evidence proving he used PEDs.  Straubel, who’s represented other athletes before the USADA, believes Armstrong has a strong case of malicious prosecution.

            If Armstrong’s case against the USADA prevails, it could protect other athletes accused of PED use from malicious prosecution.  “This is huge.  It has tremendous implications for USADA.  I really hope USADA thought all this through before it got things started,” said Straubel, concerned that overreaching could bring down the agency.  Armstrong’s high-profile defense attorney Robert Luskin represented former Bush administration chief strategist Karl Rove in the Valerie Plame case.  Luskin takes no prisoners when it comes to his clients.  “Tygart and officials with the World Anti-Doping Agency have recklessly pursued Armstrong for several years in a personal quest to catch him despite Armstrong’s hundreds of negative drug tests.  Tygart was named co-defendant in the lawsuit,” said Luskin, putting the USADA on notice that they’re in for a real dogfight.

            Armstrong’s lawsuit aims at stopping the USADA’s capricious arbitration.  Luskin believes it’s a “kangaroo court,” stacking the deck against athletes blindly accused of PED use without cross-examining witnesses. Tygart has signaled he has 10 witnesses and blood evidence proving that Armstrong used PEDs during his 1999-2005 run of seven Tour de France titles.  Armstrong’s Oct. 2, 1995 diagnosis of testicular cancer, chemotherapy, recovery and Tour de France success made him one of the most admired athletes on the planet.  Like most nonprofit, government-funded agencies, the USADA doesn’t like to have its policies and practices questioned.  Armstrong alleges the agency has gone after him with extreme prejudice.  “USDA was built by athletes on the principles of fairness and integrity,” said Tygart, offering no explanation for why he pursued Armstrong seven years after the fact.                                      

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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