Letter from the board Making A Positive Difference

Educating and safeguarding against
the abuse of anabolic steroids

Steroids raid still reverberating

Six months after Florida arrests, probe snares pro athletes, nets cash seizures



 Written by:


BRENDAN J. LYONS

 September 17, 2007
 
Correction: An earlier version of this story contained inaccurate information regarding several pro wrestling figures allegedly implicated in a nationwide steroids investigation. Kurt Angle, Randy Orton, Oscar Gutierrez, Santino Marella and David Bautista have not been suspended by their respective leagues.
ALBANY -- A frigid wind was blowing through Gillette Stadium in January 2004 when the NFL's New England Patriots took the field for a home playoff game against the Tennessee Titans.

  
Rodney Harrison, one of the Patriots' star defensive players, was on his game in the subzero temperatures that Saturday night as he picked off a pass from Titans' quarterback Steve McNair, setting up a crucial second quarter touchdown for his team. The Patriots went on to win the Super Bowl that season while Harrison, a scrappy safety with a reputation for aggressive play, emerged as one of their standouts in the championship run.

But a few days before the game, according to law enforcement sources, Harrison made what would be his first of several discreet calls over a three-year period to order drugs from a South Florida wellness clinic -- a clinic that later became a target of the Albany County district attorney.

The clinic's workers knew they had a star athlete on the phone -- he wasn't their first pro sports client -- yet they crafted a phony prescription, signed by a doctor, for the drugs that Harrison, now 34, believed would help prolong his career, sources said.

Later that month, about two weeks prior to the Patriots' Super Bowl victory over the Carolina Panthers, a package containing human growth hormone in preloaded syringes arrived at Harrison's New England residence.

HGH, as it is called, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treating dwarfism in children and chronic wasting disease, often a symptom of AIDS. But it was banned by the NFL in 1991 as athletes and others began abusing it, usually in conjunction with steroids, in the belief the HGH can slow aging, speed healing and increase strength, stamina and muscle mass.

The same year Harrison placed his first order for HGH, New York Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement investigators in Albany began scrutinizing the illegal prescriptions of a Utica-area doctor, Dr. David W. Stephenson, whom they said built a lucrative business doling out drugs such as steroids and HGH to a largely Internet clientele.

Stephenson's case ultimately triggered the state's largest investigation of steroid trafficking, culminating in a Feb. 27 raid at an Orlando pharmacy by Albany County prosecutors and a multistate drug task force.

Six months after the raid, which drew a smattering of local criticism about Albany County District Attorney David Soares' decision to pursue a largely out-of-state drug case, 10 people, including three physicians, have pleaded guilty to felony drug charges. Another dozen defendants have pleaded not guilty and have cases pending.

So far the investigation has netted about $610,000 in cash forfeitures and seizures from defendants who have pleaded guilty, which prosecutors said stands as the largest on record for their office. Soares said the money, some of which is turned over to the state, can be used for anti-drug and anti-crime programs.


 
Aside from what prosecutors characterized as their success so far in the courtroom, the case also has rocked the pro sports world, where numerous athletes have been identified as using the Internet-based pipeline to obtain steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
In Harrison's case, he recently admitted his HGH use to Albany investigators who confronted him at the Patriots' training facility in a meeting set up by the NFL. Harrison was suspended for four games.

Indeed, the revelations about pro athletes have brought representatives from the NFL, Major League Baseball and World Wrestling Entertainment -- all of which prohibit use of performance-enhancing drugs -- to Soares' doorstep. In the past two months, Harrison and an NFL coach, and 10 pro wrestlers, including some of that sport's most popular stars, have been fined or suspended as a result of the Albany investigation.

Still, Soares said the case is not about cleaning up sports.

"Our intention from the beginning was not to delve into this professional sports realm," he said. "It's distracting us. We want to keep the focus on the dangers that are presented by these Internet pharmacies. We're not just talking about steroids; we're talking about other prescribed and controlled medications."

Soares cited government studies showing young people experimenting with drugs are becoming more likely to try prescription pills than narcotics purchased from a street-level dealer.

"The idea that an individual no longer has to travel to neighborhoods to purchase narcotics and can get them delivered to their door because of the computer that sits in their office or bedroom is a frightening thought," Soares said.

Law enforcement sources in the case, which also involves a central Florida drug task force, said the names of athletes on the client list of Orlando's Signature Pharmacy will continue to grow as investigators sift through the mounds of documents and computer records taken in the February raids.

As such, Soares and his lead prosecutor on the case, Christopher Baynes, both said they intend to continue interviewing pro athletes who could lend insight or be used as witnesses at any trials against the remaining defendants, including the husband-and-wife owners of Signature Pharmacy, Stan and Naomi Loomis.

The Orlando couple, both of whom are pharmacists, have pleaded not guilty to charges alleging they were part of a network of doctors, pharmacists and wellness clinics that profited by distributing prescriptions, mostly for steroids, to thousands of people nationwide, including New York.

Baynes, who interviewed Harrison and Patriots' owner Robert Kraft three weeks ago, said pro athletes might be valuable as witnesses at trial because they could buttress allegations that the people supplying their drugs knew they were not for legitimate medical needs.

For instance, workers at Palm Beach Rejuvenation, a Jupiter, Fla., wellness clinic, had attached a note to an order for Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson, then with the Chicago Bears, indicating he was an NFL coach, according to sources in the cases. The note was discovered in the February raids across Florida.


Wilson did not dispute what he'd done, but told investigators he never provided the drugs to any players. He was recently suspended five games and fined $100,000 by the league after Soares and the case's lead investigator, Mark Haskins, flew to Dallas to meet with Wilson and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones.
In Dallas, they confronted Wilson at Cowboys' headquarters with evidence showing he'd received numerous deliveries of steroids and HGH at his former Illinois residence and at the Bears' headquarters in Lake Forest, Ill., they said.

"If it's a known athlete and the clinic knows he's an athlete, then the question is should the clinic know better than to give them the drugs in the first place," Baynes said.

Meanwhile, Haskins said, the case has emboldened the state's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement unit, which investigates prescription drug crimes.

"I think it's helped open the public's eyes to the scope of the prescription drug and anabolic steroids problem in the country," Haskins said. "I get calls now about prescription drug problems that we probably wouldn't have gotten two years ago."

Brendan J. Lyons can be reached at 454-5547 or by e-mail at blyons@timesunion.com.

Implicated athletes: Pro sports figures implicated in steroids investigation:

New England Patriots safety Rodney Harrison (4-game suspension)

Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks coach Wade Wilson (5-game suspension, $100,000 fine)

Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Troy Glaus

St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel

Baltimore Orioles outfielder Jay Gibbons

Los Angeles Angels outfielder Gary Matthews Jr.*

Former San Francisco Giants third baseman David Bell*

Former Pittsburgh Steelers team physician Dr. Richard Rydze (fired from team)

Olympic wrestling gold medalist Kurt Angle*

Arnold Classic bodybuilding champion Victor Martinez*

Former Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman

Former boxing heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield*

Pro wrestlers: Kurt Angle; Randy Orton; Chris Benoit (deceased); Eddie Guerrero (deceased); Adam Copeland; Shane Helms; Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Mysterio); Charlie Haas; Robert Huffman; Simon Dean; Santino Marella; John Morrison; William Regal; Chris Masters; Chavo Guerrero; Kenneth Anderson; David Bautista; Shoichi Funaki

* Suspected clients of Applied Pharmacy Services, Mobile, Ala. Others are directly or indirectly customers of Signature Pharmacy, Orlando, Fla.

Sources: Court records; law enforcement sources; Sports Illustrated/SI.com; ESPN.com; New York Daily News

Guilty pleas: Ten people have pleaded guilty to felony drug charges in Albany-based steroids probe:

Dr. David W. Stephenson, Rome, N.Y. (medical license revoked)

Dr. Ana Maria Santi, Queens, N.Y. (medical license revoked)

Dr. Robert Carlson, Sarasota, Fla.

Dr. Claire Godfrey, Orlando, Fla.

Greg Trotta, Davie, Fla.

Brian Shaffler, Cooper City, Fla.

Aaron J. Peterson, Delray Beach, Fla.

Monday Miller, Sugar Land, Texas

Eugene Bolton, Sugar Land, Texas

Joseph Raich, Jupiter, Fla.

Source: State court records