I don't know much about 9olddroids, but for Espresso you should disable animations in order to your tests become reliable, which you probably already did.
So maybe this is the case to increase your app "testability" by adding some code which disable animations. For instance, your activity could have a method to disable animations, like:
public void disableAnimations() {
this.mAnimationsEnabled = false;
}
And before every animation, you check if they're enabled. Once your test begins, you disable your animations:
public void setUp () {
super.setUp();
YourActivity activity = getActivity();
activity.disableAnimations();
}
public void testXYZ() {
// your test code
}
I hope this will work, as 9OldDroids will stop interfering with Espresso