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Statement From Floyd Landis and Lawyer Maurice Suh in Response to Today's Arbitration Panel Ruling:
LOS ANGELES, September 20 /PRNewswire/ --
After nearly four months of deliberation, the arbitration panel that
heard evidence and witnesses during a nine-day arbitration in Malibu,
California on May 14, 2007 ruled against Floyd Landis, the winner of the 2006
Tour de France. The Panel's decision was 2 to 1 against Mr. Landis, with a
dissent by Christopher Campbell. The majority decision came despite serious
charges regarding the accuracy and reliability of the test results and the
competency of the testing procedures of the laboratory run by the AFLD. The
decision formally strips Floyd Landis of his victory in the 103rd Tour de
France.
"This ruling is a blow to athletes and cyclists everywhere," stated Mr.
Landis. "For the Panel to find in favor of USADA when, with respect to so
many issues, USADA did not manage to prove even the most basic parts of its
case, shows that this system is fundamentally flawed. I am innocent, and we
proved I am innocent."
The decision of the arbitrators clearly establishes that, regardless of
the evidence presented by the athlete of laboratory errors, the conflicted
and coordinated testimony of the anti-doping community -- including heads of
other WADA laboratories and experts who receive millions of dollars from
USADA -- will prevail over the evidence presented by the athlete.
"The majority Panel's decision is a disappointment, but particularly so
because it failed to address the joint impact of the many errors that the
AFLD laboratory committed in rendering this false positive. To take each of
these errors singly is to ignore the total falsity of the result. The
majority panel has disregarded the testimony of Mr. Landis' experts, who are
preeminent in their respective fields, without analyzing the impact of the
errors on the final result. This is a miscarriage of justice," said Mr.
Landis' attorney Maurice Suh, partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
Mr. Landis now is currently weighing his future legal alternatives in
pursuing his case.
Media Contacts:
Europe:
Kellie Power, Gibson Dunn
+33-1-56-43-13-00
kpower@gibsondunn.com
U.S.:
Rhonda Walker, Rubenstein Associates
+1-212-843-8338
rwalker@rubenstein.com
Pearl Piatt, Gibson Dunn
+1-213-229-7963
ppiatt@gibsondunn.com
