Monday, December 29, 2008

The Winnowing: Bruce Goldberger

Bruce Goldberger Phd, is prominent forensic toxicologist, and lab director who testified for Landis at both hearings. Prior to involvement in the Landis case, he'd been invited to apply as a candidate to replace Catlin as Director of the UCLA WADA laboratory.


As many people know, I was reluctant to get involved in the Landis case as I do not work for (and never have) an anti-doping laboratory. I have been practicing forensic toxicology for more than 25 years and much of my work has focused on novel analytical techniques and quality assurance/quality control procedures.

But, when given the opportunity to study the materials from the LNDD laboratory, I immediately agreed to work with Howard Jacobs and Maurice Suh. I was distressed by the quality and interpretation of the analytical data, chain-of-custody documentation, etc. If the Landis case was prosecuted in a U.S. Court of Law, the data would have never met the Frye and/or Daubert standards of evidence.

Also, I learned quickly that the WADA Anti-doping program was constructed to such a degree that accused athletes are greatly disadvantaged when defending themselves. For example, WADA Laboratory Directors cannot consult for an accused athlete; and defense experts like myself are criticized because of a "lack of expertise and experience". Further, the WADA IST and ISL are woefully inadequate to ensure a fair and equitable system which protects the rights of the athlete while ensuring the success of an anti-doping program.

Finally, I want to thank TBV for maintaining a blog devoted to the Floyd Landis doping allegations. It has been a valuable source of information.

Bruce Goldberger, Ph.D., DABFT

1 comments:

Mike Solberg said...

And thank you, Dr. Goldberger. You were always a voice of reason and real science in this crazy case. I appreciate that you took the time to be part of this. It's sad that your expertise and testimony was not taken seriously.

syi