Today’s Floyd Landis hearings are getting off to a slow start. Currently testifying is Dr. Wolfram Meier-Augenstein, a professor from Queen’s University Belfast, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Dr. Meier-Augenstein’s specialty is gas chromatography and IRMS testing, and he is an expert in the problems that can occur in IRMS testing.
Maurice Suh is doing the direct examination for Team Landis. They are only beginning to get into the meat of Dr. Meier-Augenstein’s testimony, after having gone through his educational background and background information about GC and IRMS testing.
The morning session is on it’s second break at the moment. The first break occurred after Dr. Meier-Augenstein had been on the stand for about 35 or 40 minutes, so that Team Landis could print out articles related to the professor’s testimony. The testimony is being presented with Powerpoint slides, and Richard Young has consistently asked for reference numbers and pages for each illustration in the presentation. In addition, Team Landis has had to provide printouts of the actual Powerpoint presentation for the panel, and USADA’s counsel.
At this point, Team Landis is making notations of the various sources of graphs and illustrations for each page of Dr. Meier-Augenstein’s presentation. This comes after Matthew Barnett, one of USADA’s lawyers complained to the panel about the style of this witness’ direct examination, as TBV notes:
BARNETT: I’ve never seen direct like this! Improper direct, cites should be present in slide show.
CAMPBELL: you’re eating your time.
RECESS
While Dr. Meier-Augenstein’s testimony seems to be making some good points, Team Landis seems to be getting off to a rough start today. Perhaps they will hit their stride after this break.
Right now, I’m wondering if the interruptions from the USADA bench are designed to throw Maurice Suh off his game. I’m not sure if it’s working, but it’s certainly eating up time, which is in short supply. Team Landis needs to be finish their examination of every witness they’re planning on calling by the end of Wednesday’s afternoon session to have their best chance at a positive outcome. The clock is ticking …
