USA: CYCLING - Before there was Oprah, Dallas lawyer Jeff Tillotson went one-on-one with Lance Armstrong on doping

Record ID: 774199

  • Title: USA: CYCLING - Before there was Oprah, Dallas lawyer Jeff Tillotson went one-on-one with Lance Armstrong on doping
  • Date: 19th January 2013
  • Summary: DALLAS, TEXAS. (JANUARY 18, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) LAWYER JEFFERY TILLOTSON SAYING: "In the world of cycling he was enormously influential and powerful. He could drive sponsors away from a magazine if it published bad articles about him. He could prevent other riders from even working in the business like he did Frankie Andreu. He took out full pages ads in national newspapers against my client and there was nothing we could do to combat that."
  • Embargoed: 3rd February 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWWHV3SIJ4CE6FP9PXU7VU2B
  • Story Text: Texas lawyer Jeffery Tillotson is the only person to have questioned Lance Armstrong under oath regarding his use of performance enhancing drugs. A deposition came in 2005 and was part of a lawsuit his client SCA Promotions had filed against Armstrong for failing to live up to clauses that required him to ride clean in the Tour De France. SCA refused to pay out the bonus money it owed to Armstrong due to fresh doping allegations that had just surfaced in the London Times. During that deposition Tillotson went toe-to-toe with the sporting icon.

    "He employed every trick in the book to embellish and make his lie more believable so he would say to me in the deposition, 'Why do you think I would lie and hurt so many millions of people who admire me for being a cancer survivor.' "
    Armstrong sued SCA when it withheld the payment. The cyclist eventually won a 12 million dollar settlement which SCA now wants the back following Armstrong's doping admissions on Oprah.

    "You know we impeached a president over lying in a deposition and it carries serious consequences when you are not truthful under oath and I think Mr. Armstrong has yet to face that reality," Tillotson said.
    Armstrong's intense exchanges with Tillotson occurred in law offices in Austin, Texas and videotape of the two facing off against one another surface regularly in news reports about Armstrong's fall from grace. Armstrong repeatedly denies using using drugs to gain a completive advantage.

    "In the world of cycling he was enormously influential and powerful. He could drive sponsors away from a magazine if it published bad articles about him. He could prevent other riders from even working in the business like he did Frankie Andreu. He took out full pages ads in national newspapers against my client and there was nothing we could do to combat that," Tillotson said.
    Tillotson says he will file a fresh lawsuit on behalf of SCA against Armstrong after viewing the final night of the the disgraced cyclists televised appearance with Oprah Winfrey.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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