by Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book Substack
SDNY COURTHOUSE, November 21 – In January 2012 there was the
"unsealing of the first criminal charge under the Rodchenkov Anti-Doping Act, signed into law on December 4, 2020, which proscribes doping schemes at international sports competitions, including the Olympic Games. The Complaint unsealed today alleges that ERIC LIRA, a “naturopathic” therapist operating principally in the area of El Paso, Texas, obtained various performance enhancing drugs and distributed those PEDs to certain athletes in advance of, and for the purpose of cheating at, the 2020 Olympic Games held in Tokyo in the summer of 2021."
On May 8, 2023, Lira pled guilty. Inner City Press was there.
The pleas was before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Valerie Figueredo. Inner City Press was there.
Lira allocuted to providing PEDs to one female track athlete, from El Paso. But the prosecution mentioned Georgia, too, and said he had held a meeting in EDNY. The plea deal is for 12 to 18 months, with payment capped at $55,000.
Judge Schofield had not yet set a sentencing date so there is a control date six months out, on November 8. Defense counsel asked if the pre-sentence interview can be virtual.
On August 10, Lira's Texas based lawyer wrote asking to postpone sentencing to mid November because "I have a client who was served with a subpoena for the impeachment proceedings of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate."
After Lira asked for no jail time, the US Attorney's Office on November 21 wrote it to say that some term of incarceration is important: it did not say or suggest how much.
The case is US v. Lira, 22-cr-151 (Schofield)
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