Panel Exonerates Trainers on AHSA Cocaine Dosing Charges

Panel Exonerates Trainers on AHSA Cocaine Dosing Charges THOUSAND OAKS, CA., September 6, 2000 -- In a milestone case, a three-member Panel of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) unanimously agreed that two highly respected Southern California show jumping professionals and their employer had no responsibility for the minute quantity of cocaine mysteriously present in the urine of El Campeon's horse, Reveal. The conclusion of the Award made by the Arbitrators reads unambiguously, "Respondent [American Horse Show Association (AHSA)] has failed to sustain the burden of proof respecting the Charge against Petitioners Linda Shahinian and Nicole Shahinian Simpson and accordingly the Charge is dismissed."

"The accusation of either having administered cocaine to one of our horses or not having properly protected it from environmental cocaine contamination has been a very painful ordeal for us," said Linda Shahinian, a longtime show horse trainer and official horse show judge. "We are very happy that an independent body has completely rejected the charges against us; other honorable and careful trainer-members of the AHSA have not been as fortunate as we were in having available the legal opportunity and the financial backing to have these charges heard by an independent panel of arbitrators and not by the AHSA's internal Hearing Committee, which has routinely found against the trainers in all of the other cases involving tiny cocaine metabolites," she added. Ms. Shahinian and her daughter, Nicole Shahinian Simpson, also a highly regarded trainer and leading Grand Prix rider who recently participated in the trials to represent the United States in the 2000 U.S. Olympic Show Jumping events in Sydney, are both employees of El Campeon Farms, a private family equestrian facility located in Thousand Oaks, CA.

The AHSA's cocaine charge and threat of suspension during the Olympic Trials grew out of a finding by the AHSA's laboratory that a random urine test conducted on a horse ridden by a twelve-year old child in a "modified junior amateur hunter" class revealed 18 nanograms of a particular cocaine metabolite. Additionally, the AHSA had charged Shahinian and Simpson with not using high standards of care in protecting the horse from being accidentally contaminated by cocaine. As an indication of the minute quantity involved in this case, consider that 18 nanograms (a nanogram is a billionth of a gram) is significantly less than the 300 nanograms that is required for a positive result in tests of airline pilots. Mindful of "false positives" in cocaine tests, the State of California, upon initial positive test results, does not retest horses at levels registering below 150 nanograms. El Campeon Farms, which operates in full support of zero tolerance drug policies, argued that the 18 nanograms in this instance fell well below any reasonably reliable positive testing amount.

In a strange twist, another horse in the same competition also tested positive for a minute quantity of cocaine. Since the American Horse Shows Association ("AHSA") has recorded only 11 positives in the over 15,000 urine tests conducted in the past five years, and the two horses who tested positive on June 1999 at Showpark had no connection except for showing in the same competition, the AAA Panel expressed the opinion that some third agent might have been at work that day to account for the test results. The AAA Panel unanimously found for the plaintiffs in two important areas. They found in their rendered opinion that the two trainers had presented "affirmative evidence of such a clear and definite nature as to establish [that they were] not responsible or accountable for the positive drug test result." This exonerates the trainers even within the guidelines of AHSA, according to their own standards of proof.

Additionally, they said that the widespread presence of cocaine and the resulting possibility of inadvertent exposure to the drug have led federal authorities to establish "thresholds" in cocaine testing. This suggests that the AHSA rules should be addressed as to their validity. The Panel felt, however, that it was "not constituted to apply a rule that is not before it" and therefore had no authority to resolve the trainers' and the AHSA's conflicting positions on the AHSA's "zero tolerance" rule. The Panel concluded, "These matters are best left to experts and to open debate by the equestrian community."

In efforts to settle the disputed charge prior to taking the matter to the AAA for arbitration, Reveal's trainers and El Campeon Farms' owner had declined to accept the "plea bargain" agreement offered by the AHSA. They decided they had to fight for complete exoneration, because such a charge, even with only a nominal penalty, would have a devastating effect on the trainers' and rider's Olympic aspirations. Meanwhile, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), responding to the AHSA's threat to suspend trainer-rider Nicole Shahinian-Simpson in June if she did not accept a March, 2000 suspension, ordered the AHSA to submit to AAA arbitration. In the nine similar incidents involving AHSA charges for trace levels of cocaine contamination since 1995, charges have either been heard by the AHSA's Hearing Committee and resulted in convictions, or have been settled with "plea bargain" agreements with all terms dictated by the AHSA (and with the same end result notwithstanding the innocence of the charged professionals, owners and families). If the AHSA charge was not successfully challenged by the plaintiffs, Simpson might not have been allowed in the 2000 Olympic Show Jumping Trials, and thus from competing in the Olympics themselves.

Lou Gonda, owner of El Campeon Farms, was less than satisfied with the AAA's full exoneration in his case, because it leaves fundamental problems unaddressed. "I'm glad that this exoneration by an impartial jury puts to rest any question about anyone drugging or doping Reveal. It will not, however, help any other innocent owner or trainer from suffering the same abusive and adversarial treatment by officials of the AHSA until the members of this association mobilize to effect a top-to-bottom review of the rules and the governance of the Association," said Gonda. "We are the first to support a drug-free sport, but if the rules are such that the only available option for handling an accidental contamination is for the AHSA to prosecute innocent people in internal 'hearing committees' with the subterfuge of 'rules and zero tolerance', then the rules must be changed and we will vigorously support any move to do so."

Gonda further commented: "This Arbitration Panel confirmed that, notwithstanding all the care in the world, an accidental contamination of cocaine can happen to any horse at a horse show without us even knowing it until we receive the Notice of Charge. The shows that we attend are open to the general public and it is impossible--nor do we want--to prevent people from making friendly contact with our horses. The AHSA and the managers of horse shows are fully aware of this and it is unconscionable that our own Association disregards the facts and is willing to link our names to cocaine without considering the innocence of the persons and the damage to reputations, careers or the financial crises that many of our trainers have had to suffer because of the capricious administration of the rules of our Association."

Related Links
AHSA Press Release - Arbitrators Issue Ruling In AHSA Drug Testing Case
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