Against the advice of his attorneys, Dr. Seth Fishman gave an extended interview to The Washington Post ahead of the start of his criminal trial in U.S. District Court, which begins Jan. 19. He said, among other things, that he has been unfairly targeted in the case.
Fishman portrayed himself to reporter Gus Garcia-Roberts as an animal lover whose products were therapeutic substances designed to help horses, and that the laws used to indict him are obscure and outdated.
“If I'm providing a safe alternative to what's in use — and will be used unless I provide a safe alternative — I believe I'm practicing sound medicine … And the fact that they may or may not be able to test for it as easily, I don't know how that makes it a crime,” Fishman told the Post, speaking of an EPO mimetic.
Fishman also said he believed he was targeted in the investigation, which many reports have indicated was spearheaded by a private investigative firm hired by The Jockey Club. He claimed that other guilty parties had been “spared” to “create an illusion of reform that can distract from more entrenched corruption.” Fishman claimed his connection to co-defendant Jorge Navarro was fairly tenuous compared to that of other veterinarians, and that two probably spoke for less than a collective hour in the time they knew each other.
Fishman has been involved in a federal case before, when he was called upon to testify against former Standardbred owner and client David H. Brooks. Brooks was indicted in 2007 for fraud, and court records revealed a conversation between Brooks and Fishman in which Brooks asked Fishman to create a pill that would create amnesia in a key witness in the case. An FBI report indicated Fishman had admitted he had sold drugs to Brooks for the purposes of pre-race doping, though Fishman contends that his words were misconstrued.
Fishman, who said he has stage three thyroid cancer, told the Post he's willing to take his chances in the case, though at times he becomes discouraged about his odds of beating the charges against him.
“My number got punched,” Fishman said. “So it's either real corrupt people trying to make an example out of me or God really hates me that much that it's, 'Hey, it's my lottery ticket to die.' ”
Read more at The Washington Post
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