NEW YORK -- Conor Flynn, a witness for the prosecution in the trial of an equine-supplements distributor who is accused of falsifying and adulterating medications, testified on Monday that he was a former harness trainer who understood the penalties for violating raceday medication rules. “You’re not supposed to administer any drugs on race day,” Flynn, 32, told the jury on the trial’s fourth day in U.S. District Court in New York. Flynn was testifying for the government as a cooperating witness — the second cooperator to testify against Lisa Giannelli, a distributor for a company called Equestology who is on trial on a charge of conspiring to misbrand and adulterate drugs. The other cooperator was Ross Cohen, also a former harness trainer. Cohen testified last week that he purchased performance-enhancing drugs from Giannelli. He also testified on cross-examination that he paid harness drivers to hold their horses in a number of races. Prosecutors charged Flynn and Cohen two years ago as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the manufacture, distribution, and administration of illegal substances to horses. Other harness trainers have been arrested in the case as well as several Thoroughbred trainers, veterinarians, and those, like Giannelli, who prosecutors say were distributors. Flynn and Cohen pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in a bid for leniency at their sentencings. Flynn was indicted on charges of conspiring to secretly administer performance-enhancing drugs to horses under his care. He testified he became a licensed New York harness trainer when he moved to New York in 2009. He said in 2015 Richard Banca hired him as an assistant trainer at the Mount Hope Trainer Center in Middletown. Banca was among those arrested in a case related to indictments released in March of 2020 which resulted in 27 individuals being charged. He pleaded guilty last month and is scheduled to be sentenced in September. Flynn began testifying late in the day and his testimony was cut short when court recessed for the day. He returns to the stand May 3. The day’s first witness was Food and Drug Administration veterinarian Dr. Jean Bowman, who testified as a government expert witness on new animal drugs. During her testimony, prosecutor Sarah Mortazavi asked Bowman about a document that was found on Giannelli’s computer during an FBI search. It was an inventory list of substances available for purchase. The list included a product called HP Bleeder Plus along with a description that it could “achieve the same results without the same side effects of Lasix,” a regulated anti-bleeding medication commonly used in racing. Prosecutors have said HP Bleeder Plus was a performance-enhancing drug, though they have told the judge in the case that any substance marketed as “performance-enhancing” by distributors would be prosecuted as such independent of the efficacy of the substance. They said veterinarian Seth Fishman, Giannelli’s boss at Equestology, was the product’s manufacturer. In February, a jury convicted Fishman of misbranding and adulterating substances that were administered to racehorses. With Bowman on the stand, Mortazavi played for the jury a wiretapped conversation from three years ago in which a customer ordered a bottle of HP Bleeder from Giannelli. “Okay,” Giannelli is heard saying. “Just mail it,” the customer says to her. “Okay,” she says. Bowman testified the bottles of HP Bleeder that the FBI seized in raids in Pennsylvania and New York violated FDA rules. “It’s missing the prescription legend, the name of the veterinarian,” Bowman testified. “It lacks information on the manufacturer and the ingredients.” On cross-examination, Giannelli’s attorney Louis Fasulo tried to get Bowman to say that a veterinarian could legally compound drugs if they wanted to create their own product. “He’d have to meet certain conditions,” the witness responded. She said it would be okay only to prevent an animal’s death or suffering or when no other drug was available. “And suffering would be up to the discretion of the veterinarian,” Fasulo said. Bowman disagreed. “I think there’s a pretty good definition for what is meant by suffering,” she testified. The give-and-take continued as Fasulo continued to press the topic. He suggested it would be okay for a veterinarian to compound drugs, if it involved the use of two approved drugs. Bowman testified in that instance you didn’t need to compound anything. You could just administer the two drugs separately. On re-direct examination, Mortazavi asked Bowman about her answers to the drug compounding questions. “Animal suffering wouldn’t be running slow?” she asked. “No,” Bowman replied.