Dressage trainer Michael Barisone was “in an almost catatonic state” in mid-summer of 2019 as he feared for the safety of those around him and his business, viewing threats posted on social media by a boarder/tenant and other harassment with such alarm that he wasn’t eating or sleeping, his former assistant trainer testified today.
Justin Hardin was on the witness stand at Barisone’s attempted murder trial in Morristown, N.J., where he was asked if Barisone was depressed in the days leading up to the Aug. 7 shooting of Lauren Kanarek.
“Extremely,” came Hardin’s reply, noting that for the first time in the 18 years he had worked with Barisone, the 2008 U.S. Olympic dressage team alternate was withdrawn and couldn’t run his Hawthorne Hill stable in Long Valley, N.J., as usual, not even bothering to ride.
Justin Hardin, who worked as assistant trainer at Barisone Dressage. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)
When the trial opened yesterday before Judge Stephen Taylor, Barisone’s lawyer, Edward Bilinkas, recounted a saga of harassment by Kanarek and her boyfriend, Rob Goodwin, citing recording of private conversations, the threatening posts and disruption of his client’s home and business. The attorney is pursuing an insanity and self-defense strategy against the charges faced by Barisone, which also include two weapon possession counts.
Kanarek, who began riding with Barisone in 2018, was living in the trainer’s house with her boyfriend, Rob Goodwin, a carpenter doing work on that structure and elsewhere around the property. But their relationship with Barisone and his girlfriend, Mary Haskins Gray, turned sour. Barisone wanted them out, and was moving to evict them.
To get away from the couple in the meantime, Barisone and Gray moved out of the home into a clubhouse adjacent to the indoor ring, and eventually into space at the stable. Finally, a desperate Barisone found himself on a mattress outside the barn when he wasn’t walking the property at night because of his security concerns.
Morris County Supervising Assistant Prosecutor Christopher Schellhorn asked Hardin if Barisone had struggles with anxiety and depression before the situation with Kanarek and Goodwin arose.
Mary Haskins Gray on the witness stand.
While Hardin answered yes, he noted that those conditions were “extremely worse” leading up to the day of the shooting, when two bullets fired at point blank range ripped into Kanarek’s chest, leaving her in critical condition.
Also on the stand today was Gray, quite poised during the early part of her testimony, but looking less composed while the questioning went on about texts exchanged between her and Barisone as things spiraled downward at Hawthorne Hill.
Looking up at her from the defense table was Barisone, with whom she had a romantic relationship beginning in 2015 as the two also collaborated on teaching riders and training horses.
Michael Barisone in court.
Barisone, unshaven and wearing a rumpled gray shirt with a striped tie, watched her intently, occasionally wiping his eyes, as he also had done during other testimony yesterday.
Gray discussed a series of photos of the stable and clubroom with Schellhorn. The championship coolers, ribbons and photos of winning horses on the polished pine-paneled walls spoke of achievement, a sad contrast to the current state of the man who had crafted such success through hard work and horsemanship.
When Schellhorn asked if the atmosphere at the farm had become toxic, Gray replied, “That’s an understatement. We were terrified of what it was building to and what was coming next.”
Focusing on the money it takes to run a top-class stable, Schellhorn drew out Gray on financial issues faced by Barisone, who estimated it cost $40,000 a month to keep his business going. That included monthly payments of $6,000 for the Long Valley property and $3,000 to pay the mortgage on a farm in Loxahatchee, Fla., near Wellington, in addition to all the usual freight for feed, the farrier, veterinary care, maintenance and the other charges horse owners know so well.
Gray also said Barisone told her it was “hard to feel good” after he “got clipped $965,000” in connection with his divorce from Vera Kessels.
Michael Barisone and his ex-wife, Vera Kessels. (Photo © 2009 by Nancy Jaffer
Both Barisone and Gray, as well as Kanarek and Goodwin, in turn complained about the other couple to the U.S. Equestrian Federation and SafeSport.
At the end of July, Barisone texted Gray and told her he wanted information on what Kanarek had done to people in the past.
“I need every single person who has ever been screwed by Lauren, Rob and her dad. Farriers, vets, trainers. I ‘m going to get her a lifetime ban as a competitor,” he vowed.
On August 6, 2019, Gray shipped via UPS 756 pages of information along those lines to USEF counsel Sonja Keating. The shooting took place the next day.
Another discussion about the timeline centered around the SafeSport lifetime ban from the sport of hunter/jumper guru George Morris on the grounds of sexual misconduct involving a minor. The news about Morris, who had been a mentor of Barisone’s, came on August 5.
Two days later, a caseworker from the state Division of Child Protection and Permanency came to the farm to talk to Gray. It is believed that an allegation from Kanarek that Gray’s 11-year-old son had been abused by Barisone was the reason for the visit. There was discussion in court whether the prospect of being banned, after what happened to Morris, was the last straw. Shortly after the caseworker arrived, Barisone drove his pick-up truck to the house, talked briefly with Goodwin, and Kanarek was shot.
Another witness this afternoon was Ruth Cox, the owner of the pink and black Ruger handgun that was used in the shooting.
Ruth Cox and the Ruger.
Cox, who has a doctorate in marriage and family therapy, came to the farm Aug. 1, 2019 to see horses she co-owned with Gray that were in training.
Late one evening, Barisone asked to see the gun she kept with her for safety reasons when she was driving to New Jersey from her North Carolina home. He took it from her and she did not pick it up again until she lifted it today to show it to the jury.