Ryan Braun’s Sample Collector Says He Followed Protocol
According to ESPN, Dino Laurenzi Jr. said he followed protocol when he collected NL MVP Ryan Braun’s test sample last October and issued a statement via an email sent to ESPN The Magazine’s Buster Olney to clear the air.
“This situation has caused great emotional distress for me and my family. I have worked hard my entire life, have performed my job duties with integrity and professionalism, and have done so with respect to this matter and all other collections in which I have participated,” Laurenzi said.
Laurenzi also said that after collecting a sample of urine from Braun he then acquired his signature verifying that it was his sample and that the test result was in fact sealed. Laurenzi is in distraught over this entire ordeal but maintains confidence that he did everything he was supposed to do.
The protocol Laurenzi says he was following was that set by his employer, Comprehensive Drug Testing, and that he did the right thing by keeping the samples in a secure location until they could be shipped.
“Given the lateness of the hour that I completed my collections, there was no FedEx office located within 50 miles of Miller Park that would ship packages that day or Sunday. Therefore, the earliest that the specimens could be shipped was Monday, October 3,” Laurenzi said, according to the email.
The problem that Major League Baseball and Laurenzi face is that Braun’s representatives claim that “at least five FedEx locations within 5 miles were open until 9 p.m. ET and there also was a 24-hour location.” The sample itself never reached a FedEx until Monday, October 3 at 1:30 p.m. CT.
“The protocol has been in place since 2005 when I started with CDT and there have been other occasions when I have had to store samples in my home for at least one day, all without incident,” Laurenzi said, according to the email. “I followed the same procedure in collecting Mr. Braun’s sample as I did in the hundreds of other samples I collected under the program. I sealed the bottles containing Mr. Braun’s A and B samples with specially numbered, tamper-resistant seals, and Mr. Braun signed a form certifying, among other things, that the specimens were capped and sealed in his presence and that the specimen identification numbers on the top of the form matched those on the seals.”
Laurenzi has an impressive resume with Comprehensive Drug Testing and seems to have no motive to cheat the system. Since 2005 he has collected more than 600 urine samples, including the postseason, for five different major league ball clubs. Sources told ESPN the test sample that arrived at the Montreal laboratory was sealed three times with tamper-proof seals and that none of the seals were broken.
Braun’s camp beat the system and that does not sit well with MLB or Laurenzi. Whether or not Braun is “not guilty” or drug free is irrelevant because the ruling has already been announced. It will be interesting to see not only what MLB does with this current situation but all drug testing in the future.
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