A new cooperating witness for the federal racehorse doping case against Lisa Giannelli began her testimony May 2 on the fourth day of her trial in United States District Court in New York.
Conor Flynn, 32, a former assistant belt trainer, is the second cooperating witness to uncover and testify against Giannelli, who is on trial for conspiracy to mislabel and adulterate engineered drugs. to improve performance and avoid detection during post-race checks. The other collaborator is Ross Cohen, also a former harness trainer.
Two years ago, prosecutors charged Flynn and Cohen as part of the government’s horse-doping campaign. Other harness trainers were arrested in the case as were several Purebred trainers, veterinarians, and those prosecuted who said they were distributors.
Flynn and Cohen pleaded guilty and agreed to work together to obtain clemency in their prisons.
Flynn was charged with conspiring to secretly supply performance-enhancing drugs to the horses in his care.
He testified that he became a licensed harness trainer in New York when he moved to New York in 2009. He said in 2015 Richard Banca hired him as an assistant. training at Mount Hope Training Center in Middletown.
Banca was among those arrested in the horse doping case. He pleaded guilty last month and is expected to be sentenced in September.
Flynn began testifying later in the day and his testimony was cut short as the court adjourned for the day. In his testimony, he made it clear that he understood the penalties for breaking the drug rules on race day.
“You must not take any drugs on race day,” Flynn told the jury. He returned to the stands on May 3.
Last week Cohen testified that he purchased the performance-enhancing drug from Giannelli. He also testified on cross-examination that he fixed the horse races.
The first witness of the day was a Food and Drug Administration veterinarian, Dr Jean Bowman, who testified as an expert government witness on the new animal drugs.
During her testimony, federal prosecutor Sarah Mortazavi asked Bowman about a document found on Giannelli’s computer during an FBI raid. It is an inventory of the drugs available for purchase.
The listing includes a product called HP Bleeder Plus along with a description that it can “achieve the same results without the side effects as Lasix.”
Prosecutors said HP Bleeder Plus was a performance-enhancing drug made by veterinarian Dr Seth Fishman, Giannelli’s boss at his business called Equestology.
In February, a jury found Fishman created a PED that was used to induce addiction to seahorses and designed to avoid detection in post-race tests. Fishman, who is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, has yet to be convicted and faces 20 years in prison.
With Bowman in the stands, Mortazavi played for the jury an wiretapped conversation from three years ago in which a customer ordered a bottle of HP Bleeder from Giannelli.
“Okay,” said Giannelli.
“Just send it in the mail,” the customer told her.
“Okay,” she said.
Bowman testified that bottles of HP Bleeder that the FBI seized during raids in Pennsylvania and New York violated FDA rules.
“It lacked the prescribing caption, the vet’s name,” Bowman testified. “It lacks information about the manufacturer and the ingredients.”
In cross-checking Giannelli’s attorney, Louis Fasulo tried to get Bowman to say that a veterinarian could combine drugs if he wanted to create his own.
“He has to meet certain conditions,” Bowman replied. The death or suffering of an animal can only be prevented, she said, or when no other medicine is available.
“And tolerance will depend on the veterinarian’s discretion,” Fasulo says.
Bowman disagreed.
“I think there’s a pretty good definition of what it means to be suffering,” she testified.
Giving and receiving continues as Fasulo continues to hit the subject.
He suggests that veterinarians should be fine with combining medications if it involves the use of two approved medications.
Bowman testified that in that case you don’t need to incorporate anything. You can only use two separate medicines.
On a live back-test, Mortazavi asked Bowman about her answers to drug-related questions.
“Suffering animals will not run slow?” she asked.
“No,” Bowman replied.
