NEW YORK (AP) - The lawyer who helped overturn Ryan Braun’s drug suspension last year has been added to Alex Rodriguez’s legal team.
David Cornwell has joined Jay Reisinger to represent Rodriguez in baseball’s drug investigation, a person familiar with the hiring said Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement was authorized.
His hiring was first reported by ESPN.
Cornwell successfully argued the grievance filed by the players’ association on behalf of Braun, whose positive drug test was thrown out by an arbitrator in February 2012 because the collector of the urine sample didn’t take it directly to a Federal Express office on a Saturday evening, instead storing it at home until the following Monday.
Anthony Bosch, head of the now-closed Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic, agreed this week to cooperate with MLB’s investigation. Rodriguez, Braun and more than a dozen other players have been linked to the clinic, which was accused in January by the Miami News Times of providing banned performance-enhancing drugs.
Bosch was to meet Friday in Miami with MLB officials, another person familiar with the investigation said, also on condition of anonymity because no statements were authorized.
MLB sued Biogenesis, Bosch and five others in March. The case file in Florida’s Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County showed that MLB lawyers issued subpoenas to UPS and Metro PCS asking for records, in addition to document demands made on Federal Express, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA.
UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said the company “responds to all lawfully issued subpoenas.” Metro PCS did not respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.
The court file also showed former University of Miami pitching coach Lazaro Collazo objected to having his deposition taken by MLB lawyers because he said he had no connections with Biogenesis and Bosch and he had no documents relevant to the subpoena.
Collazo filed a motion saying he was interviewed at his home by Neil Boland, MLB’s vice president for information security, and MLB labor lawyer Patrick Houlihan, which Collazo’s motion said was an encounter “fraught with intimidation, coercion, embarrassment and repeated questioning” about Biogenesis. Collazo claimed the deposition was an effort to “annoy and harass” him.
“They did no such thing,” MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred said Friday.
The deposition was canceled May 28.
___
AP Legal Affairs Writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.