Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Lauderdale Half Marathon

Re:Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Laud... by kriro on Thursday February 23, 2017 @07:23AM (#13713324)

For me the most interesting tidbit is that she biked the entire race afterwards in a cover up attempt. Are there any studies on doing something wrong and escalating it with coverup attempts? Or is there a name for this that I'm not aware of? I know it has to be the theme of at least one classical drama...sort of a reverse "Hans in Luck" of sorts...I dunno.

I have witnessed this pattern before and the spiral that person went on was completely out of character and a progression of small pieces. I wouldn't be shocked if a good number of serious crimes had almost comically trivial root causes that escalated that way.

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Re:Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Laud... by hiharryhere on Thursday February 23, 2017 @10:47AM (#13714791)

Marcus Einfeld comes to mind. A formerly well respected Australian judge who perjured himself over a $77 speeding ticket by blaming it on dead Americans and received 3 years in prison for the string of lies he told to trying to cover it up. Madness. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Einfeld#Criminal_convic...

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Re:Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Laud... by PhantomGremlin on Thursday February 23, 2017 @06:46PM (#13719094)

Everyone should read this. It's hilarious.

First the judge tried to blame Teresa Brennan, "an old friend" from the USA. Turns out she was dead, and he knew it.

But then he claimed that he had lent his car on that day to a different Teresa Brennan, whom he claimed also lived in the USA, and who had also died.

When various TV shows have comically stupid plot twists I sometimes struggle with "suspension of disbelief". But this is one of those cases where truth is far stranger than fiction. You'd never believe someone in such a position of trust could be so stupid over something so petty.

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Re:Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Laud... by arctangent on Thursday February 23, 2017 @09:45AM (#13714207)

I suppose the definitive example of this would be the Watergate scandal [1], which led to the coining of the phrase "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up".

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal

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Re:Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Laud... by asdfasdf32r3 on Thursday February 23, 2017 @06:13PM (#13718814)

Another funny case is Melky Cabrera, an MLB player, who built out a website to cover up his positive PED test.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/8282185/san-francisco-gia...

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Re:Runner Disqualified After Claiming 2nd Place in Fort Laud... by npunt on Friday February 24, 2017 @02:10AM (#13721688)

Escalation of commitment / commitment bias / sunk costs are what you're looking for. Agree, I've observed this 'cover it up with a bigger lie' thing happen. Madoff's scheme is a similar one, and that judge story in sibling comment is great example. These things are almost always comical/tragic in nature.

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