A gold medal-winning Olympic show jumper from Canada has been accused of faking brain cancer to avoid a court battle over allegations he got rich by selling unfit horses.
Eric Lamaze, 55, faced numerous lawsuits when he first announced in 2019 that he was battling glioblastoma, an aggressive rare cancer, according to HorseSport.
In July, his then-lawyer filed legal papers claiming that Lamaze’s cancer had “spread to his throat” – and that he would need a “high-risk” craniotomy, temporarily removing part of his skull and leaving him unable to speak “most likely .” on a regular basis,” the report said.
However, the documents submitted as evidence soon proved to be forgeries — in part because they were written in Dutch, a language the named expert did not speak.
Even Lamaze’s lawyer, Tim Danson – who has known her for 30 years – then jumped ship, leaving with damning remarks in his final appearance with her in Ontario Superior Court earlier this month, the report said.
“Eric is very sick, but may not have cancer,” Danson was quoted as saying.
Eric Lamaze is accused of faking an aggressive cancer diagnosis to avoid a lawsuit.Toronto Star via Getty Images
Judge Marvin Kurz ruled earlier this month that Lamaze – who won gold in Beijing in 2008 after initially disqualifying for cocaine use – “feigned late-stage cancer” to avoid a “day of reckoning” in the lawsuit.
The show jumper was ordered to pay costs for the previously missed hearing and has until Oct. 9. to find a new lawyer or risk losing the lawsuit in default.
Lamaze is now blaming the fake document on a staff member doing “funny things.”
Lamaze won the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.Getty Images
“The Dutch doctor never existed … I never had a Dutch doctor,” he admitted in an interview with The Daily Beast that also discussed his history of using cocaine and having a “very bad drinking problem.”
However, she insists she’s not lying about her cancer — instead claiming she walked out of hospital in 2020 when she was given just two hours to live, and somehow recovered on her own.
He also shared an undated photo of himself looking frail in a hospital bed, and another showing a zig-zag scar on his head, which he claimed was from surgery to deal with his tumour.
Lamaze provided The Daily Beast with two undated photos, including one of him in a hospital bed.
A neuro-oncologist told the outlet that such an operation is more likely to leave a “linear” scar, while accepting that the shape of the wound is “theoretically possible” from the specified surgery.
A plastic surgeon, Jay Calvert, told the outlet that a separate cavity near the rider’s nose was “consistent with cocaine use.”
Despite his assurances, lawyers for at least one of the horse owners suing Lamaze have had doubts for years — with private investigators looking into him competing days after he announced his apparent battle with cancer in 2019.
Eric Lamaze also made millions buying and selling horses for well-heeled clients. Image courtesy of Getty Images
“You know, January 19, 20, he almost died of brain cancer. And on January 31st, he jumped in” an event, a lawyer in the case, Jerome Morse, told the Beast.
“We put an investigator on him … And sure enough, throughout March he competed, and competed quite well.”
Morse represents jockey Karina Aziz, one of many who have accused Lamaze of selling horses unfit for show jumping – including, in Aziz’s case, a horse that was deprived of feeling in its legs and later paralyzed by surgery.
Lamaze is now tasked with finding a new lawyer ahead of a trial on Oct. 9.Getty Images
“They have sold this broken horse. And then Eric would say, ‘Oh, you’re a terrible rider, it’s not a horse, like, I’m an Olympic champion,'” Aziz told The Daily Beast of Lamaze, who amassed a fortune over the years buying and selling high-profile show jumpers. .
Lamaze, however, remained defiant.
“I am innocent. I mean, bring it,” he told The Daily Beast. “It’s your job to check what you’re buying, not mine,” he told the store.
“In our business, [it’s] rich dad, princess girl. They want what they can’t ride.”
While being open about his drinking and coke abuse, Lamaze insists that drugs are not part of his current problem — as court battles have left him too broke for anyone.
“Ask me to go buy a hamburger today, I can’t,” he lamented.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
