Posted on 09/16/2010 8:13:41 AM PDT by truthandlife
Federal authorities have reportedly obtained an important piece of evidence linking Lance Armstrong to performance-enhancing drugs. Greg LeMond (pictured), a three-time Tour de France winner, secretly recorded a telephone call six years ago with a woman close to Lance Armstrong who was in Armstrong's hospital room in 1996 when he told cancer doctors about his use of performance-enhancing drugs, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Armstrong, who won a record seven consecutive Tour de France titles, has repeatedly denied ever using performance-enhancing drugs or doping.
The recording and a transcript of the telephone call are expected to be presented to a federal grand jury in Los Angeles that is looking into allegations of drug use in professional cycling.
Sources told the Los Angeles Times that the woman who engaged in the phone call with LeMond is Stephanie McIlvain, who served as Armstrong's liaison at Oakley and was a confidant. Prosecutors have already subpoenaed McIlvain.
LeMond originally called McIlvain with the intention of talking to her about other business. But the telephone call switched gears shortly after when LeMond asked McIlvain exactly what happened in the hospital room with Armstrong in 1996.
During the telephone conversation McIlvain asked LeMond if he was taping the article, to which he responded "no."
According to the Los Angeles Times article, LeMond says on the phone call, "I know what I heard from a source outside of the group here of what, um, happened at the hospital.... I'm not asking you to do anything you would never want to do, but, you know, if I did get down where it was ... a lawsuit ... would you be willing to testify?"
McIlvain responded: "If I was subpoenaed, I would. ... I'm not going to lie. ... I was in that room. I heard it. ... My whole concern is my loyalties to Oakley. ... They say I was never in there. And I know I was in there. You know, I totally know I was in there."
According to LeMond's wife Kathy, the tape was made in July 2004. Greg LeMond has reportedly given prosecutors the taped conversation with McIlvain along with tens of thousands of documents corroborating evidence against Armstrong.
The true story in regards to what Armstrong actually told doctors in 1996 has been in dispute since 2004, when a book came out noting that Armstrong's former teammate, Frankie Andreu, and his wife, Betsy, who were also present in the 1996 hospital room, said they also heard Armstrong's admissions to using performance-enhancing drugs. Earlier this summer, Betsy Andreu told prosecutors and the Los Angeles Times that she thinks McIlvain has not spoken out about the situation to not jeopardize her career with Oakley.
In a 2005 Texas civil case deposition, McIlvain denied ever hearing Armstrong make an admission of using performance-enhancing drugs or doping. She did not return calls to the Los Angeles Times.
Betsy Andreu, though, has also provided federal prosecutors with voice mail tapes that reportedly have McIlvain apologizing for lying in the 2005 Texas civil case deposition.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, one of Armstrong's legal representative notes that, "Greg LeMond's illegal tape is the stalest of all the stale news to emerge from this inquiry so far: Ms. McIlvain disavowed this during her 2005 sworn deposition, and Mr. LeMond violated California law when he made the tape in yet another of his pathetic attempts to settle old cycling grudges."
The Los Angeles Times also reported that legal expert Laurie Levenson noted that calls can be used as evidence in federal cases as long as one of the parties in the taped call is not reluctant to using it.
In other Lance Armstrong news, the head of the French anti-doping agency, Pierre Bordry, has said that he will fully cooperate with the U.S. in their investigation into Armstrong and doping.
Wow!! This is like fifth hand information! And, it’s 14 years old!!!!
Cheaters prosper.
Hearsay.
More Lance drugth doo-wa.
Dr./Patient privilege!
Inadmissible!
Armstrong is the White Whale to Lemond’s Ahab. It’s been driving Greg insane for years.
And a guy can’t have an honest discussion with his attending physician without a knucklehead blabbing to the world.
Sounds like a major HIPPA violation.
You can go to JAIL for that, news agency can get fined big bucks for that.
Shameless that someone would report what you told your doctor...
Oh my, there’s possibly doping in cycling?
Who’d have known?
Who’d have cared?
However, what I found funny was this:
McIlvain responded: "If I was subpoenaed, I would. ... I'm not going to lie. ... I was in that room.
Coupled with this: In a 2005 Texas civil case deposition, McIlvain denied ever hearing Armstrong make an admission of using performance-enhancing drugs or doping.
Since the tape was made in 2004, and the deposition was made in 2005, either McIlvain lied to Lemond, or she lied to Lemond, on that tape. Because she said both that she heard Armstrong, and that she would not LIE if she was called to testify.
But the next year when called to testify, she said she didn't hear him. So either "I heard Armstrong" was a lie, or "I won't lie" was a lie.
On the other hand, maybe Armstrong DID talk about performance-enhancing drugs. There are drugs that enhance your performance but that were not illegal in 1996; Also, he might have been ASKED about them, and talked about how different ones could effect his cancer-treatment, without saying he actually USED them.
Or, maybe he had actually USED them at some point before his cancer treatment, in which case his insistance that he NEVER used them would be a lie, but would hardly make a difference unless he used them after his cancer treatment.
*Yawn*
He won all his Tours after his cancer treatments.
Also, didn’t the cancer treatment itself involve using drugs that are normally considered performance-enhancing? In which case the discussion could well have been about what types of drugs were being used, and whether they would disqualify him from racing.
No privilege if the statement was made in the presence of a third party who is not part of the physician's health care staff.
If he knowingly made the statement to his doctor in the presence of a third party, the physician is still bound to confidentiality, but the third party is not.
LOL....our replies were virtually identical, and came right after each other, so I had to check out your profile page. Looks like we signed up on FR one day apart....welcome aboard, noob! ;-)
So, she committed perjury in the deposition?
In the 2005 case? It would appear so, if what she told LeMond is the truth.
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