Support for ex-Olympian Michael Barisone jumps after attempted murder acquittal

Former Olympian Michael Barisone, who was acquitted of attempted murder in April after purportedly shooting his tenant, is now looking to the future, and he has the support of those closest to him — including a love interest — and hundreds of fans, some halfway around the world.

At the pinnacle of his career, Barisone, 58, was lauded as one of the world's best dressage coaches and riders, but doctors opined that he had a delusional disorder that severely altered his thinking when in 2019 he twice shot student Lauren Kanarek on his Long Valley farm. Barisone, whose mental health history was thrust into the spotlight during his 11-day trial, during which he often sat hunched in a chair with a pained look, claimed that Kanarek had mentally abused him.

After 18 hours of deliberations, a jury found Barisone not criminally culpable for the shooting, rendering a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity for attempted murder and a weapons offense. The jury also found Barisone not guilty of the attempted murder of Kanarek's fiancé, Robert Goodwin, and another weapons charge.

But now nearly two weeks removed from his acquittal, Barisone, who as of Tuesday was still awaiting transfer to a Trenton psychiatric facility for evaluation, is focused on putting his life back together, one step at a time.

"The weight of the world has come off his shoulders," said his attorney, Edward Bilinkas, who has visited or spoken by phone to Barisone in the Morris County jail numerous times since the trial. "He literally seems like a different person."

How so? For one thing, Barisone has started to talk about his future and what it looks like to him, Bilinkas said: He misses his horses and riding, but wants to put his life back together and is trying to understand what he needs to do to allow that to happen.

Whether he will receive long-term treatment or be released is still unknown — a judge will determine that during a closed hearing in May — but Bilinkas said it's beneficial that he has a support system, including Lara Osborne, his girlfriend.

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Osborne, who lives in Florida, developed a friendship with Barisone about four years ago that has since turned into more, she said by phone Tuesday. Osborne first met Barisone when she enrolled her daughter in a dressage clinic in summer 2018. Barisone later coached the teen at a national championship in Illinois, and she began to live at Barisone's New Jersey farm as a student worker.

"He is very charismatic with a wicked sense of humor, exactly like my sense of humor, so I totally got it," Osborne said. "He's the kindest person I've ever met, and he would bend over backwards for [my daughter]."

Osborne, who was on the property with her daughter on Aug. 7, 2019, the day of the shooting, said she isn't sure when their friendship turned into something more, but that she offered Barisone support after his arrest and visited him weekly at the jail. Their relationship just "grew from there," she said.

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Now Osborne is doing what she can to help Barisone stay afloat financially, including with his large attorney fees, as he awaits his evaluation. She has created a GoFundMe campaign that has garnered support from near and far. As of Tuesday afternoon, the fundraiser had amassed nearly $50,000.

Many of those supporters are friends outside of the equestrian world, as well as fellow riders and former students of Barisone's, the latter proving that the dressage community is tight-knit. One supporter posted: "People don’t realize that when you take on one member of the dressage community, you take on the entire dressage family."

But complete strangers also felt compelled to donate, with one saying Barisone's trial, which was livestreamed by Law and Crime Network, "hit me personally."

Bilinkas has also become a messenger of sorts, having compiled "hundreds" of letters in support of his client that have been sent to his office. He's also fielded dozens of phone calls — some from as far as New Zealand and Dubai, he said.

"I've been [an attorney] for 40 years, and I've never seen anything like this," said Bilinkas, who has been a defense attorney for about 35 of those years.

"I've had real big cases, but never where there's been so much support for someone who was charged with something like this in particular," he added.

Bilinkas said he thinks Barisone connected with people because of the positive reputation he developed through meeting so many during his travels around the world as an elite member of his sport.

"I've never heard one person say a bad thing about him," Bilinkas said. "More importantly, even after these types of allegations, everyone is showing nothing but love and support for him, even before the verdict."

But now, after the verdict, there is a larger onslaught of people, he said.

A feud pitting Barisone against Kanarek and Goodwin had escalated over time, and Barisone had unsuccessfully sought to remove them from his property months before the shooting. Kanarek had used Facebook to detail her ongoing disputes with Barisone.

Kanarek survived the shooting, but she was placed in a medically induced coma and spent nearly three weeks in intensive care. A promising dressage athlete, Kanarek testified at trial that she is back to riding, but not at the same level.

Prosecutors argued that Barisone was well aware of what he was doing when he loaded a weapon and drove to the farmhouse to shoot Kanarek and purportedly at Goodwin. A psychologist who testified on behalf of the prosecution suggested Barisone did not have delusions and believed he was portraying himself as "more disturbed" than he actually was.

Barisone crumpled into his attorney's arms when the verdict was read on April 14, his frail body physically shaking. Osborne said she wasn't able to embrace him in that moment, since sheriff's officers did not allow it, but she was able to see him later.

Osborne said it's important for Barisone to get the therapy he needs to deal with all that has happened, and then take it one day at a time. His Long Valley farm has been sold, she said, so his home would be in Florida, where it was said during trial he owns a farm. Barisone is ineligible to compete in dressage due to a suspension by SafeSport, an organization that fields allegations of abuse among U.S. Olympians, but Osborne said that will be "dealt with."

His gift as a coach and rider shouldn't be forgotten, she said, and he may one day get back to it, but for now, there is only one focus: "We just need to get him home."

Lori Comstock can be reached on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH, on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/LoriComstockNJH or by phone: 973-383-1194.

This article originally appeared on Morristown Daily Record: Michael Barisone: Ex-Olympian's support rises after acquittal