It gives the appearance of a conflict of interest when Plano Police are investigating the suspicious death of a convicted steroid dealer who could have ratted out police officers who purchased steroids from him not only in the Plano Police Department but also the Dallas, Garland, Richardson and Arlington Police Departments; not only that, but he told practically everyone that Plano P.D. stole $4500 and human growth hormone from him during the April 2007 raid of his residence.
Tanya Eiserer (following up on Jason Trahan’s story) called them out on their conflict of interest in the Dallas Morning News, yet Plano P.D. couldn’t see any reason why they shouldn’t investigate (”Steroid dealer David Jacobs’ death ruled a suicide,” June 6).
“The Plano Police Department will handle this investigation as we do with all of the others,” Plano Officer Andrae Smith said Friday. “The bottom line is there’s no reason to conclude that we shouldn’t investigate this.”
Furthermore, the circumstances of the death, specifically the uncommon case of multiple gunshots in the Jacobs’ suicide, make the death somewhat suspicious even in the absence of a clear conflict of interest by police. The Dallas Morning News reports that David Jacobs “died of two self-inflicted gunshot wounds to his stomach and head.”
How often do suicide victims turn up with multiple gunshot wounds? Steroid Nation found a paper to answer this question - according to the American Journal of Forensic Medical Pathology (1981 Sep;2(3):239-42), approximately 1.6% of firearm suicides have multiple gunshot wounds.
A similar case involving NYPD in January caught my eye, and made me wonder just how deep the rabbit hole goes regarding steroid use in law enforcement. A pharmacist set to testify against NYPD police was found shot to death. As I pointed out previously, “his case was ruled a suicide, despite ‘gunshot wounds to the chest and head.’” Reacting to this news, I’d wondered “Have you ever heard of a suicide with two shots to the chest and the head? If the guy accusing Roger Clemens turned up dead under these circumstances, do you think there’d be a bigger media hoopla than the one-day story in passing that constituted coverage of this pharmacist’s death?”
Now we’ve seen informants accusing police of steroid use at two of the largest police departments in the country turn up shot to death within months of one another under suspicious circumstances before they could testify.
Maybe it’s a coincidence. Maybe both cases were suicides, or perhaps one or both were killed by non-police customers or suppliers. I’m not so much speculating about likelihoods as acknowledging a dark, unhappy, but seemingly inescapable hunch. I’d certainly feel better if the FBI or somebody outside Plano PD took over the task of investigating David Jacob’s’ death.
The family, friends and loved ones of the deceased need some sort of closure in this tragedy. But the poor judgment exercised in the investigation of this case by the Plano P.D. will only provide fodder for conspiracy theorists to keep this story alive indefinitely.
I write this early Friday morning from the South Fork Hotel in Plano, Texas where a disconcerting convergence of steroid and bodybuilding-related events has materialized within a 15 mile radius.
Fifteen miles away is the Magnolia Theatre, the Mark Cuban owned venue where the Texas box office premiere of the steroid documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*” featuring a segment with Plano’s Don Hooton takes place on Friday.
The will be a particularly difficult weekend as David Jacobs and Amanda Jo Savell were especially well known within the North Central Texas bodybuilding and fitness community, many of which are coming into town for the show.
Former steroid dealer David Jacobs and IFBB fitness pro Amanda Savell were discovered dead early this morning. It was first reported on Anthony Roberts blog and also reported by John Romano on Muscular Development and Hardbody. I have confirmed it with a close friend of Amanda Jo’s who has spoken with her family and police on the matter. While it was most likely a murder-suicide with Jacobs first shooting his former girlfriend and then turning the gun on himself, police have not ruled out a double homicide.
The murder-suicide is a terrible tragedy. It is probably only a matter of time before the media starts to suggest steroid use and roid rage as the culprit behind the tragedy much as they did with Chris Benoit. But I hope the media spends some time to appreciate the “richness of these lives” lost and seek ways to avert future such tragedies. This was best said by Jack Darkes in his review of the Chris Benoit tragedy:
If AAS are blamed and the richness of these lives ignored, then the opportunity to prevent such rare events goes unrealized. Singling out a drug to blame leads to fiery rhetoric, congressional hearings, prohibition and scare tactics; none of these have succeeded in curbing drug use, especially among those at greatest risk for harm. Most AAS users do not experience negative effects and hence distrust the message and the messengers, perhaps most notably among those who should listen. Research has shown this many times. Blaming AAS diverts focus from potential indicators of risk and predictors of harmful outcomes. This is where science might be most helpful in dispelling simplistic notions and in working toward more effective risk identification, targeting of limited resources and reducing associated harms.
Former professional bodybuilder Craig Titus has pleaded guilty to second degree murder, first degree kidnapping and first degree arson. Fitness pro Kelly Ryan, the wife of Craig Titus, also pleaded guilty days before their trial was scheduled to start. The plea agreement spares the sport of bodybuilding from a sensationalistic trial where anabolic steroids are likely to be demonized; we anticipated a “dumbbell defense” with the requested appointment of clinical psychologist David Schmidt of UNLV.
Local news stations have breaking news about the case and sentencing.
Once stars in the bodybuilding world, they are accused of using a stun gun, drugging and suffocating 28-year-old Melissa James in December of 2005. James burned body was found in a burned out Jaguar belonging to Ryan.
The morning after attending the Hollywood premiere party for Bigger Stronger Faster, we were lucky to find Lou Ferrigno outside our hotel on Venice Beach on the set of a new Hollywood movie “I Love You, Man” starring Jason Segal, Paul Rudd and Jaime Pressly slated to arrive in theatres in 2009. His role is a small role (and he’s not credited in Internet Movie Database yet) but they still filmed his scene all day today. Of course, Lou Ferrigno is no stranger to Hollywood having starred in the popular television series “The Incredible Hulk.” We had some live video coverage of the movie filming today that were originally aired real-time at Qik. My full report along with Lou Ferrigno photographs will appear on Muscletime.
Roswell police Lieutenant James McGee said Tuesday the operation sold HGH, testosterone and copy-cat versions of Cialis online and through mail order, netting an estimated $25,000 to $30,000 a day.
The Roswell Police Department SWAT Team and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations raided the “mansion” home of Christian and Jennifer Navoy in the upscale Sentinel on the River Subdivision of Roswell, Georgia. According to property records, the Navoys purchased the home at 8585 Sentinae Chase Drive, Roswell, GA 30076 for $745,000 in July 2006. They moved to Georgia from Fort Walton Beach, Florida where they were employed as a registered nurse and a licensed physical therapist.
The couple sold $25,000-$30,000 a day, making more than $100,000 a week selling the drugs over the internet all over the country. It is believed the couple had been producing the drugs for years, however it wasn’t until recently when authorities received a tip that they began investigating.
According to the Atlanta Constitution Journal, charges against Chris and Jennifer Navoy are pending from the FDA. A local television station WSBTV reports that the Navoys are now in the custody of the Roswell Police Department after turning themselves in late Wednesday.
I’ve been in New York City the past few days in preparation for the 2008 IFBB New York Pro Bodybuilding show at the Tribeca Performing Arts center. I am covering the show with the Muscletime team. Unfortunately, Muscletime was not granted press credentials for this contest, so we had to do our best to cover the show in spite of this minor limitation.
We were glad to provide live streaming video coverage of the men and women’s bodybuilding prejudging this morning. I know that bodybuilding fans sorely missed Bodybuilding.com’s live webcasts, so I hoped we could offer some live video to replace the live webcasts.
Tonight we hope to have additional live coverage if possible. However, there is quite a bit of uncertainty since we don’t have press credentials and our seats aren’t so great. But we will do our best to provide the great bodybuilding contest coverage that Muscletime.com is known for!
NPC Bodybuilder Dan Puckett was found dead in his apartment on November 8, 2007 at the age of 22. There was immediate speculation that Puckett died from the use of anabolic steroids based on the fact that he was a bodybuilder and furthered by the rampant steroid hysteria in the media. This week, autopsy results reveal that Puckett’s unfortunate death was due to “natural causes” dispelling claims that he died from steroid use.
Dan Puckett was a collegiate bodybuilding champion, winning the 2006 NPC Teen & Collegiate National Championships, and a senior marketing major at the University of Alabama.
Filmmaker Christopher Bell interviewed his good friend Muscletech spokesperson Christian Boeving about anabolic steroids for the critically acclaimed documentary “Bigger Stronger Faster*”. Boeving spoke honestly about his use of anabolic steroids. When CNN aired excerpts from the documentary shortly after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival, Muscletech fired released the bodybuilding and fitness model from his contract.
Muscletech apparently has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to steroids. You certainly can’t talk about steroids if you are sponsored by Muscletech. Muscletech allows you to publicly talk about quite a few things (like masturbating to Christina Lindley’s Maxim photo spread, making multiple references to Lindley’s ample breasts or alluding to Lindlay and microphone fellatio whileinterviewing Christina Lindley) without consequence but talking about steroids publicly crosses the line. Such a public admission of steroid use might indicate to consumers that the muscular physique of a sponsored bodybuilding athlete is not solely the result of Muscletech supplementation.
The review article profiles steroid dealer David Jacobs and his introduction to anabolic steroids, his integration into the bodybuilding scene, his networking with pro football players, his decision to import and manufacture anabolic steroids, his steroid bust, the dismantling of the Texas steroid network, and his ostracism from the bodybuilding community (”Plano resident’s steroid distribution ring was one of the largest in U.S.,” April 24).
I recommend reading the complete article for a better understanding of the chronology and scope of the Texas steroid investigation. Below are a few excerpts.
David Jacobs’ decision to manufacture and distribute anabolic steroids:
At Lewisville Lake’s Party Cove one weekend, he met his first pro bodybuilder, Art Atwood. The two became friends, and Mr. Atwood helped train the up-and-coming rookie.
Both men were taking steroids, but were unhappy with shoddy Mexican imports.
Mr. Jacobs went online and found a solution: recipes for steroids using raw Chinese powder. Mr. Jacobs soon parlayed his knowledge of Asia, gleaned during his Nokia business trips, into contacts with English-speaking middlemen to the Chinese steroid powder factories.
Sloppy packaging that led to steroid bust:
On March 19, 2007, the United Parcel Service intercepted a soggy package sent from Mr. Jacobs’ Plano home, bound for Wichita, Kan. When officials opened the box, they found a broken glass vial of what turned out to be steroids.
Authorities arrested the man in Kansas who had ordered steroids from Mr. Jacobs, court documents say. Jamie Mongeau, an amateur bodybuilder, told investigators that Mr. Jacobs was his supplier.
Ostracism from bodybuilding community:
Brian Dobson, owner of Arlington’s MetroFlex gym, which produced eight-time Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman and where Mr. Jacobs used to train with other bodybuilding friends, said that since his bust, Mr. Jacobs has been ostracized by the bodybuilding community he once serviced.
“A lot of people hate him,” Mr. Dobson said. “To a lot of the other guys who were his buddies, once he got caught, he became the black plague.”
The full text of the article is available on the Dallas Morning News website.
