Landis's integrity under fire from USADA lawyers
MALIBU, California: US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) lawyers attacked Floyd Landis's character on Tuesday, saying the Tour de France champion had acted without integrity over the firing of his former business manager.
USADA attorney Matt Barnett also called into question an internet posting placed by Landis last year in response to what he felt were unfair comments made by three-times Tour winner Greg LeMond.
Landis, battling to keep his 2006 Tour title after a positive doping test, made his character a central part of his defence when he gave testimony in his nine-day hearing at Pepperdine University on Saturday.
In cross-examination, Barnett asked the 31-year-old American why it took him so long to sack his manager Will Geoghegan for making an anonymous menacing phone call to LeMond.
"In hindsight, we probably should have fired him immediately," said Landis, who wore a black tie and black suit for the only time at the hearing on the day of Geoghegan's sacking.
"Everything I did after I got here that morning and discussed it with the lawyers was based on what they advised me to do.
"It was not a day to celebrate by wearing a yellow tie. There was nothing good that came out of that day. It was a bad day."
Geoghegan was fired on Thursday afternoon, having phoned LeMond the previous night.
Hearing rocked
His dismissal was announced shortly after LeMond rocked the hearing by revealing he had been sexually abused as a child and that the Landis camp had used that information to try to prevent him testifying.
Landis, who says he did not know Geoghegan had contacted LeMond despite being with his former manager in the same hotel dining room, said he was appalled by the call.
"I felt bad for Greg," he said. "I assumed that he would make a big deal of the call. It was a big deal."
Barnett asked Landis why he had threatened to divulge information about LeMond in an internet posting last year after the two had shared a telephone call last August.
"He (LeMond) spoke (in the press) about his personal opinion that everyone who has won the Tour since him has been doped," Landis said of what sparked the internet posting.
Sexually abused
"It (the posting) wasn't related to his being sexually abused, it was a message to him to please stop."
Landis, who learned of LeMond's sexual abuse during their phone call, wrote in his internet posting: "The facts that he divulged to me ... would damage his character severely and I would rather not do what has been done to me.
"However, if he ever opens his mouth again and the word Floyd comes out, I will tell you all some things that you will wish you didn't know ... I will have entered the race to the bottom (rung) which is now in progress."
At his hearing, three arbitration experts will determine whether Landis injected himself with testosterone.
If found guilty of doping, he faces a two-year suspension and the possibility of becoming the first Tour winner to be stripped of his title.
However, the 31-year-old American could take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
The Malibu hearing was scheduled to end yesterday when lawyers on both sides would present closing arguments.
Agencies
(China Daily 05/24/2007 page23)
