Michael Barisone is preparing what he calls “the biggest comeback story in the history of sports.”
Barisone, 62, a former member of the 2008 Beijing Summer Games dressage squad, made the declaration in an interview with the New Yorker from his current farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, about 20 miles from Palm Beach. He was released from psychiatric state custody in November 2023 after being found not guilty by reason of insanity in April 2022 for the August 2019 shooting of Lauren Kanarek at his Morris County, New Jersey farm.
“I want my dignity back. I want my reputation back,” he said in the interview. He described himself as “a terrific guy who snapped” and referred to Kanarek and her fiancé Robert Goodwin as “the scum of the earth.”
The former Grand Prix competitor, who won more than 100 competitions and once taught Stephen Colbert dressage in a segment he labeled “horse ballet,” remains permanently banned from equestrian events. He faces no possibility of returning to the sport through conventional channels, yet he outlined an ambitious path forward.
“If this goes right, if I can make another team, a World Cup, a world championship, I will be the biggest comeback story in the history of sports,” he wildly claimed.
Barisone has never denied being the gunman. During his trial, doctors testified that he was legally insane at the time of the shooting, suffering from delusions and paranoia. He had faced up to 60 years in prison for the attempted murders of Kanarek and Goodwin, whom he shot at but missed.
He is now writing a memoir called “Pure Evil,” he told the New Yorker. In it, he claims the old him “died” in the shooting from “a shattered dream and a broken heart.”
The relationship between Barisone and Kanarek began in March 2018 at his Loxahatchee facility, where he started coaching her. He later allowed Kanarek and Goodwin to live in a vacant apartment on his New Jersey farm while she continued training. Their arrangement soured when Barisone claimed the pair violated a verbal agreement to leave once training concluded.
Tensions escalated dramatically in the days before the violence. Police were called to the farm multiple times in the 10 days preceding the shooting. On the day of the attack, Barisone shot Kanarek twice in the chest. She told 911 dispatchers, “I’ve been shot in the heart. Michael Barisone shot me.”
Kanarek survived and later recalled her struggle to breathe, comparing the sensation to “being in a pool and stuck under a raft that someone was on.” During the struggle, Barisone also tried to fire at Goodwin, but the bullet missed him.
Barisone was charged with two counts of attempted murder and one count of weapon possession. His insanity defense succeeded, sparing him prison but placing him in psychiatric custody until his release last year.
Since his release, Barisone has pursued an aggressive legal strategy to rebuild his public standing. He has filed multiple lawsuits, including one in which he claimed the shooting could have been avoided. He has also directed fierce criticism at the industry that once celebrated him, calling the equestrian world an “incestuous cesspool of filth” and labeling horse dealers “shysters.”
The memoir title “Pure Evil” appears to reflect his framing of himself as a transformed figure rather than an admission of wrongdoing, with the old version of himself having perished in the 2019 violence he initiated.