The girlfriend of one of the co-defendants in the Brandon Millay (Kong Labs) steroid case has been indicted by a federal grand jury for hiding anabolic steroids from federal agents during the investigation. Mary Kay Hamilton, along with her boyfriend Jimmie Lynn Garrison, allegedly “concealed and covered up anabolic steroids from United States Postal Inspection Service and Food and Drug Administration agents investigting the illegal distribution of anabolic steroids” according the additional charge filed by federal prosecutors on July 8, 2009. Hamilton allegedly helped Garrison obstruct the federal investigation on or about May 6, 2008 shortly after the Brandon Millay steroid ring was busted in April 2008 (”Owensboro couple charged in steroid investigation,” July 9).
Jimmie Garrison was indicted along with three other co-conspirators in December 2008 on various steroid-related charges. Brandon Millay, the alleged ringleader, is the only defendant to have pleaded guilty thus far; Millay has agreed to completely and truthfully cooperate with the government by testifying before any grand juries and trials upon demand.
Mary Hamilton initially appeared to have escaped prosecution. However, federal prosecutors decided to include her name in the superceding indictment shortly before Brandon Millay was scheduled to be sentenced and prior to the other co-defendants going to trial.
It is unclear why the U.S. Attorney’s Office waited so long to indict Hamilton although the federal government has been known to intimidate and pressure the families of defendants. In some steroid cases, federal prosecutors have been accused of using spouses and girlfriends as bargaining chips to influence cooperation, testimony and/or plea agreements by defendants.
Baseball player Alex Rodriguez allegedly tested positive for Testosterone and Primobolan (methenolone) in 2003 when he was the American League’s Most Valuable Player according to a Sports Illustrated (SI) report this weekend. The media and public attention has since largely focused on the accusation of steroid use itself rather than the more troubling concerns that government officials may have illegally leaked the name of Alex Rodriguez in violation of a court-imposed gag order. Furthermore, it appears more and more likely that the federal government illegally obtained the testing sample and results in the first place (”A-Rod leak might have been a crime,” February 9).
The judge in the Barry Bonds perjury case could find BALCO prosecutors, investigators or officials in contempt if evidence connects them to the leak of formerly anonymous 2003 Major League baseball drug tests that resulted in allegations that Alex Rodriguez took steroids.
A source familiar with the proceedings between the government and MLB players union said, “It is not possible this was leaked without there being a violation of the law.”
The list of name of 104 MLB baseball players who tested positive for anabolic steroids as part of Major League Baseball’s “non-disciplinary and anonymous” steroid testing in 2003. The seizure of the list and testing samples is the subject of a lawsuit by the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) against the federal government. A gag order has been imposed on all parties involved in the case preventing the leaking of names under the penalty of contempt of court. Read more
The Sports Illustrated version of the history of anabolic steroids in sports is now available online in its entirety with the launch of SI Vault.
Sports Illustrated on March 20 plans to unveil SI Vault, a new section within SI.com that will feature digitized archives of the magazine’s complete collection of content throughout its 54-year history. At launch, the online archive will feature 150,000 articles, 500,000 images and 2,800 covers…
Sports Illustrated has documented the use of performance enhancing drugs in sports for several decades. Now, every steroid article, every growth hormone article, every doping article is available to read for free at the SI Vault.
Charles “Modi” Modiano of Cosellout has begun the process of indexing several anabolic steroid articles that we feel MESO-Rx will find particularly interesting (”SI Vault: Sports Illustrated’s 40 Years of Steroids Coverage,” April 2). Of course, Sports Illustrated, from the beginning and throughout its historic coverage of anabolic steroids, has been instrumental in encouraging a climate of steroid hysteria that made the dispassionate, scientific discussion of anabolic steroids almost impossible.
To our knowledge Bil Gilbert’s extensive three part series in 1969 is SI’s first substantial foray into the subject of PEDS with it’s second part on baseball a must-read for historical context. The next 15 years marked many steroid/PED discoveries in sports like Olympics track & field, cycling, and body-building, but wouldn’t receive major attention or cover treatement (see Brian Bosworth) until the NCAA and NFL football became exposed in the latter 1980s. In the 1998, the Olympics took center stage as Ben Johnson was “busted” on SI’s cover. One year later SI printed another article that contained allegations against Carl Lewis and Florence Griffith-Joyner but few heard of the story. In 1991, former NFL star Lyle Alzado personally blamed his impending death on steroid abuse, but doctors could not corroborate such a claim. However, this SI cover story’s set a tone of “steroids scare” that would make it almost difficult to have reasonable discussions on the health risks of Steroids/PEDs for another 20 years.
But the articles are all here for better or worse: Bil Gilbert’s historic 1969 steroid hysteria series; anabolic steroid and bodybuilding in the 1970s; Terry Todd’s The Steroid Predicament about Dianabol, John Zeigler, Bob Hoffman and York Barbell; Terry Todd’s early history of growth hormone in sports; blood doping by American cyclists at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics; old school steroid dealer Charles Radler; 1985 Clemson University steroid scandal; football player Steve Courson’s steroid revelations; Tommy Chaikin’s bad steroid experience; Brian Bosworth and NCAA steroid crackdown; 1989 Senate hearing on anabolic steroids and the NFL; Ben Johnson, Charlies Francis, Jamie Astaphan and Winstrol; accusations of steroid use by Carl Lewis and Florence Griffith-Joyner; Lyle Alzado’s steroids made me sick and scared article; and of course Barry Bonds and steroids; and much more.
It’s all here, the good, the bad, the ugly. Enjoy!
(A special thanks to Cosellout!)
Steroid chemist Patrick Arnold of Ergopharm testified in San Francisco federal court today in the perjury case against cyclist Tammy Thomas. Pat Arnold said under oath that THG was explicitly created to avoid detection by athletes subject to doping controls. He admitted to selling tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) to Victor Conte of BALCO and directly by mail to Tammy Thomas. (”Chemist testifies he created steroid at the heart of BALCO scandal,” March 25)
THG was also known as “the clear” because it was not detectable at the time Arnold developed it in about 2001.
Under questioning by prosecutor Jeff Nedrow, Arnold said, “That’s the primary reason why THG was developed.”
Arnold also said, “I believe that Miss Thomas understood full well it was undetectable and that that was its purpose.”
He said he believed the cyclist understood the drug had “steroid-like qualities.”
Tammy Thomas denied ever receiving any products from Pat Arnold other than Ergopharm 1-AD; she denied receiving anabolic steroids or other performance-enhancing drugs from Pat Arnold or anyone else; she denied using anabolic steroids.
The government rarely pursues perjury cases in federal court. But when it comes to professional athletes who lie about steroid use, they go all out in their efforts to prosecute them for perjury e.g. Marion Jones, Tammy Thomas, Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens.
The government is purportedly going to prove that Barry Bonds and other athletes used steroids due, in part, to an increase in the size of the head and feet.
In Thursday’s court filings, prosecutors said they will rely in part on Thomas’ body features to prove she used steroids. Similarly, they are expected to show a jury significant growth to Bonds’ head, feet and other body changes during the time he was alleged to have used steroids.
Sports journalists and laypersons have so frequently asserted that increased head circumference and foot size is a side effect of anabolic steroids, that the government thinks it is a documented fact.
Certainly, anabolic steroids can affect the size of body parts other than muscle tissue. Steroid use can result in reduced testicular size in male steroid users and clitoral enlargement in female steroid users. Do you suppose that the government will subpoena measurements of Barry Bonds’ testicles or Tammy Thomas’ clitoris to prove steroid use?
Nothing would surprise me given the scope of the federal steroid witch hunt. The federal government is desperately seeking to use perjury as the tool to make examples of steroid-using athletes given the monumental failure of the Anabolic Steroid Control Act to reduce or eliminate steroid use in professional sports.
Congress should simply subpoena all professional athletes from every sport to answer questions about steroid use under oath. “Springing the perjury trap” on steroid using athletes would be considerably more effective strategy than the flawed Anabolic Steroids Control Act.
