Tuesday Hearings: Second Update

Since the cross examination of Dr. J. Thomas Brenna finished this morning, not much in the way of testimony has happened. The person currently testifying, or whose testimony will continue shortly, is Cynthia Mongongu, one of the scientists at LNDD who worked on Floyd Landis’ A and B sample tests from Stage 17.

Her testimony has been beset by translation problems, problems which should have been easily anticipated and avoided. Bill Hue, in his afternoon commentary, notes:

This scene is one of the most mind boggling things I have ever witnessed in any court. Ms Mongongu is testifying and has been since 11:00 this morning. The matter has adjourned until 2:00. About 10 minutes of practical testimony has been received due to severe interpretation problems (She speaks French but does know some English).

It’s just a little after 2 p.m. Pacific Time as I write this, and I’m not certain if her testimony has started again. An interesting footnote to all of this is that Team Landis wanted to depose the French lab staff in Paris before the hearings. USADA objected, and in a 3-0 decision, the arbitrators ruled that they had no power to compel that the depositions be conducted in Paris.

Had they happened, however, a lot of time could be saved. But perhaps that’s USADA’s game. Knowing that the arbitration panel would like to finish on time, perhaps USADA is performing a stall, like used to happen in basketball before the shot clock was introduced to the game. By burning valuable time, they confuse the proceedings, but more importantly, they run down the clock. Which leaves Team Landis with less time to put on their own case.

TBV notes another possibility in a comment to this post:

You assume USADA wants these witnesses to be able to give testimony, and be cross-examined. If the direct is hopeless, how good can the cross be? It’s perfect — you produce them to appear cooperative, then make it impossible to get anything out of them.

If that’s their game, then it’s a good example of the dirty tricks USADA is willing to pull in order to win. Win at all costs.

But there is another possibility, and this one is actually worse for USADA than being so cunning as to run out the clock. Perhaps they are genuinely incompetent at trying such cases, and with the full light of day, it’s now plain for us to see. Since these hearings have been a closed-door affair before, we have no frame of reference. But perhaps knowing that the deck is stacked heavily in their favor has made USADA and their outside lawyers fat, lazy and out of shape.

From what I saw and heard on the video feed yesterday, and from what I’m reading today, it appears that Team Landis is running circles around USADA. I’ll admit, I’m a bit biased here, but Richard Young and his helpers aren’t giving USADA very good value for the money. At least, not from a layperson’s perspective. Maybe they don’t care. Maybe they know the fix is in.

But from what I’m seeing, USADA is not putting on a very good show. And not to have a competent translator is an insult. Not only to Team Landis, but also to the people who took time out of their lives to travel thousands of miles to testify on USADA’s behalf. Whoever is responsible for this mess should hang his or her head in shame.

And hopefully, the arbitrators are taking notice. But Bill Hue’s other commentary of the day makes me wonder about how the panel is functioning. And that’s another story…