After weeks of ignoring expert advice, failing to reply to emails and refusing to even publicly admit they may have made a mistake, the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR) has cleared Cortney Casey of all wrongdoing.

The TDLR sent Casey a letter today saying:

“After reexamination of the documents in our possession and careful examination of the Sample B results, your 90-day suspension is lifted effective June 29, 2017, the enforcement case dropped with no further action taken, and the bout “win” reinstated on your record.”

This, effectively, is a complete exoneration of Casey. While the TDLR don’t apologize for making the wrong decision in the first place, there was an apology “for the delay in my decision” from Brian E. Francis, the TDLR Executive Director.

According to the email sent to Casey, the TDLR made the decision to suspend her the same day they first looked at her 'A' sample results. It took them over a week to make the decision to clear her after receiving her 'B' sample results. Taking your time to make the right decision is a good thing, but that time should probably be taken before damaging a fighter's reputation.

Casey was branded a cheater despite doing literally nothing wrong. She didn’t take a banned substance. She didn’t so much as fill out a form incorrectly, she didn’t even accidentally test positive because of a tainted supplement. There was nothing she could have done differently to prevent this from happening. This entire episode was caused by the TDLR’s inability to properly understand and apply the WADA regulations it claims to use.

Hopefully the TDLR do the right thing and release a strong, public apology to Cortney Casey for the embarrassment and harassment they caused, along with a vow to ensure no other innocent athlete is put through this ordeal again.