One Way To Find Out Who’s Lying In Mayfield Case
With the “facts” presented by all sides being so diametrically opposite, it’s pretty clear that someone’s blatantly lying in the Jeremy Mayfield vs. NASCAR affair.
The cast of characters includes Mayfield; NASCAR; Dr. David Black and his Aegis Labs, which oversaw the initial testing of Mayfield, as well as a subsequent retest recently; and Lisa Mayfield, Jeremy’s stepmother, who claims to have witnessed him using methamphetamines more than 30 times over the years – yet did not turn her stepson into authorities.
Tuesday, another member was added to the menagerie: respected Broward County (Fla.) medical examiner Dr. Harold Schueler, who reportedly stated in an affidavit that the methamphetamine level allegedly found in Mayfield’s urine in testing by Aegis Labs not only was “astronomical,” but also “could not be remotely accurate, unless Mr. Mayfield was deceased or a chronic abuser,” according to the Associated Press.
Mayfield doesn’t look even remotely like a typical meth head, and he sure isn’t dead, so maybe Schueler is onto something there.
I can understand NASCAR being 100 percent behind Dr. Black and Aegis. The sanctioning body is paying Black and Aegis a lot of money to not only administer its drug testing program, but even more so for two other things:
To be honest and correct in their findings.
But with Tuesday’s story about Schueler’s affidavit coming to light, such a bold public statement by a respected medical professional casts things in a whole different light in my mind.
Let me give you a for-instance:
What do little kids do when they’re caught lying? They’ll either come clean and immediately tell the truth, or they’ll tell one lie on top of another to try and support the original falsehood.
It’s the same thing with spouses cheating on their wife or husband, businesses that blatantly rip off customers yet refuse to admit it, or politicians that try to cover up acts of corruption.
It’s when they’re finally caught, when they can’t lie any longer due to an overwhelming preponderance of evidence against them, that they throw themselves at the mercy of mom and dad, their spouse, their customers or voters – or yes, the court system – usually with tears in their eyes and sorrow and remorse for what they did.
Although I often wonder if it truly is because of remorse, or more so that they’re ticked at themselves for finally getting caught.
What if Aegis made an innocent mistake with the initial test of Mayfield, eventually realized it but decided not to make it public for fear of embarrassment and criticism of both itself and NASCAR, and then has continued to add “evidence” that supports its claims – but may not necessarily be truthful or accurate?
While NASCAR is right in standing up for Dr. Black and Aegis, at some point, and if additional independent test results from Mayfield’s camp and affidavits like Dr. Schueler’s continue to come to light showing Mayfield completely clean of drugs, NASCAR is going to be forced to look at that blind trust and faith it has in Aegis and Black and wonder if something might be amiss, either innocently or blatantly.
Sure, Mayfield had an “expert” come out on his side about a month ago whose credentials appeared suspect. I’ve wondered what happened to that “expert,” as he faded from view quicker than he came into it.
More recently, Mayfield has received endorsement from two sports anti-doping agencies that, like Schueler, were critical of NASCAR and Aegis.
With yet another true expert like Dr. Schueler coming out in defense of Mayfield, and I’m willing to bet even more will start coming forward to further back Schueler’s and Mayfield’s ascertations, NASCAR could wind up taking some huge criticism for the blind faith and trust it has put in Aegis and Black, particularly if Mayfield and his attorneys ultimately prove Aegis and Black unquestionably wrong.
Perhaps the best thing of all – the smartest thing, frankly – is instead of being so totally loyal to Aegis and Black, maybe NASCAR should bring in a second testing body to essentially make sure the first one didn’t make one very huge mistake, and then continued to add to it to cover it up.
And, if I were Dr. Black, who also has been stubbornly adamant that Aegis could not have made any mistakes, if I want to reaffirm my own credibility and that of my firm while also disproving any additional expert testimony or evidence from experts that Mayfield brings to the fore, I’d gladly welcome a second testing agency just to prove everything is correct and kosher with the first.
Because if it ultimately is found out that somehow Black and Aegis botched things and continued to do so to cover their respective butts, it’s going to cost NASCAR in so many ways, the least of which is the money Mayfield may be awarded by a judge or jury for defamation.
NASCAR already takes cars and motors back to its research and development center in Concord, N.C., for further inspection after each race, oftentimes with different officials involved in the secondary inspection there than at the race track, just to make sure that everything is above-board and up to snuff and that no team is in blatant violation of the sanctioning body’s rules.
It’s a checks and balances system that works.
Following that same thinking, really, what harm would it do if NASCAR were to bring in a second independent outside testing agency just to confirm what Aegis insists are the true facts?
If NASCAR were to do that and the results either were completely in line with or totally disproved Aegis’ findings, then we’ll come a lot closer to find out who truly is lying in this whole mess and who isn’t.
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