But over a year later, the Office of the Albany County District Attorney continues to prominently display Victor Martinez’ name and picture on its website in a diagram of Operation Which Doctor. He is listed with 23 other individuals directly involved in the Signature Pharmacy and longevity clinic steroid scandals. However, I believe Victor is the only individual listed who has not been indicted. But no where is he identified as an “unindicted co-conspirator” allowing visitors to make their own uninformed assumptions.
Although a criminal defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty and has a Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial, these procedural protections do little to shield an individual who is identified as an unindicted co-conspirator. Because trials focus on the guilt or innocence of the indicted defendants, the practice of naming an individual as an unindicted co-conspirator in effect accuses the person of a crime without providing him or her with a forum for seeking vindication.Thus, the practice routinely results in injury to their reputations, lost employment opportunities,and a practical inability to run for public office…
[I]t is clear that publicly naming individuals as unindicted co-conspirators in a grand jury indictment violates their due process rights…
Consequently, unindicted co-conspirators are labeled as criminals — regardless of whether the defendants themselves are found guilty — because the trial does not focus, and is not designed to focus, on evidence presented against them.
Not only was bodybuilder Victor Martinez publicly named by prosecutor David Soares, but his name and photograph have been prominently featured on the government website at the heart of the investigation for over a year! This is particularly unfair to Victor Martinez.
IFBB pro bodybuilder Dexter Jackson won the 2008 Arnold Classic bodybuilding contest on Saturday, March 1, 2008. This year’s contest had one of the most competitive fields in the contest’s history. Muscletime’s Raymond Cassar was in the press pit with some incredible photographs from the contest. His pics from the 2008 Iron Man Pro in Los Angeles were some of the best on the internet. Full contest results available at Muscletime.
So we all agree that steroids are bad, right? They’ve brought suspicion and shame.
Then it got a little better. Dr. Gupta starts talking about the therapeutic use of anabolic steroids in HIV patients. He talks about the therapeutic uses of steroids.
He seems impressed that steroids can be good but then discusses how the therapeutic uses for steroids were “hijacked” by athletes and especially bodybuilders. Blame the bodybuilders. Parties responsible for the hijacking include the “Arnoldistas” or followers of Arnold Schwarzenegger who, according to Shaun Assael, created a steroid “religion.”
He blamed talked about the “Underground Steroid Handbook” but didn’t even mention the author, Dan Duchaine!
Then Dr. Gupta’s credibility takes a major hit when he talks about growth hormone.
Then there’s human growth hormone (HGH), derived from the pituitary gland.
HGH derived from pituitary glands has not been used in medicine in decades. It is all recombinant human growth hormone nowadays.
But that hope was dashed when I learned that when taking anabolic steroids, “there’s always the risk of, you know, heart weakening and liver tumors.” And then I [again] learned Lyle Alzado blamed his brain cancer on steroid abuse.
Gupta asks what can be done about a good drug gone bad? The first thing we should stop doing is stop associating Lyle Alzado’s brain cancer with his steroid abuse. Why do we persist in repeating this again and again with the standard disclaimer that there is no medical evidence to support it?
Flex Online spoke with the attorney for Hidetada Yamagishi and confirmed the steroid-related charges against Hide that we first learned over three weeks ago from Muscletime. Allan Donnelly writes:
Yamagishi is charged with six felonies and three misdemeanors.
The felonies are: unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale a controlled substance, trenbolone; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale a controlled substance, testosterone; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale a controlled substance chorionic gonadotropin; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale of a controlled substance mesterolone; unlawful possess for sale and purchase for sale of a controlled substance, oxandrolone; unlawful transport, import into the state of California, sell, furnish, administer and give away and offer to transport, import into the State of California, sell furnish, administer and give away, and attempt to import into the State of California and transport a controlled substance trenbolone, chorionic gonadotropin, testosterone, mesterolone, oxandrolone and stanozolol.
Shawn Chapman Holley, Hide’s defense attorney, confirmed that the amount and quantity of anabolic steroids and ancillary drugs found in Hidetada’s luggage at LAX was consistent with personal use for a competitive bodybuilder.
It’s clear that the quantity of steroids at issue is consistent with personal use and far less than one would expect to see in a case of sales. Moreover the quantity is consistent with what one would expect to see for a bodybuilder with the competition schedule Hide had posted on his Website before his arrest.
The State of California is apparently abusing misusing the law by attempting to prosecute Hidetada Yamagishi as a distributor of anabolic steroids; Hidetada clearly had no intent to sell steroids only to compete in professional bodybuilding competitions.
California Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, knows a thing or two about the quantity and type of anabolic steroids and ancillary drugs included in precontest bodybuilding steroid stacks. He could easily confirm that the steroid stack imported by Hide was consistent with personal use by a professional bodybuilder. Someone should appeal directly to Arnold Schwarzenegger and ask that he explain this to California prosecutors.
There is a good chance that Hide’s defense attorney will be able to do the same and reach a plea agreement to misdemeanor charges on behalf of Hidetada Yamagishi.
I am hopeful that on February 6th we will have worked out a deal where, hopefully he will plead guilty to a misdemeanor count and be placed on summary probation with credit for time served and that will be the end of the criminal case.
Nonetheless, it is terrible that Hide will have spent no less than 8 weeks incarcerated on trumped up charges.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone were competitive rivals as box office muscle action heroes during the 1980s. But now Arnold and Sly are apparently good friends. According to Stallone, their friendship has flourished recently:
After he became governor, we started to build this relationship. We’d go to this place called Cafe Rome and smoke cigars, then they banned smoking, so the governor and I were in an alley stealing a few puffs talking about how to balance the budget. Now we meet every Saturday.
Schwarzenegger is even a fan of Sly’s movies nowadays. Arnold took his two sons on a flight to Las Vegas Los Angeles last week for the box office premiere of Sylvester Stallone’s latest movie, Rambo.
I’m certain that Arnold’s friendship with Sly will be criticized since Stallone has become the most high profile celebrity advocate for the use of growth hormone and testosterone in age management medicine during his recent promotional tour for Rambo.
Arnold has long faced criticism of his association with pro bodybuilding via the Arnold Classic because of the rampant anabolic steroid use in the sport. It’s good to hear Arnold is not turning his back on friends and the sport of bodybuilding simply due to political pressure!
“Running with Arnold,” a documentary about California Governor and Bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, first premiered at the South by Southwest (SWSW) film festival in Austin last March 2007. It was not a particularly ambitious film and full of factual errors. Certainly, Schwarzenegger’s admitted steroid use is fair game, but the director also makes pathetic attempts to link Arnold Schwarzenegger to Adolf Hitler by repeatedly juxtaposing Nazi imagery within the film. Many bad films have debuted at film festivals and quickly disappeared. But for some reason, this film is now being released in theatres (at least in California) and at least for this weekend.
How unfair is the portrayal of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the documentary? Even liberal activist Alec Baldwin, who was hired to do the voiceover narration, had his lawyers (unsuccessfully) issue a cease and desist to compel the producers of the film to remove his voiceover narration from the film.
…Schwarzenegger deserves to be treated fairly and the film’s images of Nazi rallies were over the line… The people of California have the right to reelect an unqualified man to lead their state, and they have the right to do so without unfair and ultimately offensive images of the Third Reich thrown in for bad measure…
Mike Gabrawy, the film’s producer, defended the juxtaposition of Nazi imagery with Arnold Schwarzenegger:
I knew we’d get resistance to a film about the most prominent Republican in California. We’re all just a bit shocked that it’s coming from a supporter of the film and arguably the most outspoken Democrat. The [Third Reich] images that Mr. Baldwin mentioned were used to make points about Waldheim and Arnold’s father.
Well, the reviews are starting to come out now, and few critics seem sympathetic towards the producers of the documentary feeling it’s less of a documentary and more like a 72-minute political attack ad against Schwarzenegger!
