Convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs killed IFBB pro figure competitor Amanda Savell in a murder-suicide; the scenario was likely fueled by jealousy over her relationship with NFL football player Matt Lehr according to the Dallas Morning News. Matt Lehr admitted deep feelings in his relationship with Savell (”Jealousy may have led steroids dealer David Jacobs to kill ex-girlfriend and himself,” July 13).
“She was in love with me, and I loved her,” Mr. Lehr, 29, said in a recent interview, acknowledging for the first time his relationship with Amanda Earhart-Savell, a 30-year-old professional figure competitor and fitness magazine cover girl who also had dated Mr. Jacobs on and off since last year.
We extend our sincerest sympathies and condolences to Matt Lehr and her family and friends for their loss.
David Jacobs, the convicted steroid dealer that murdered his ex-girlfriend and then committed suicide, continues to take people down posthumously. The lawyer for NFL football player Ryan Fowler, a linebacker for the Tennessee Titans, suspects his client faces suspension based on a so-called non-analytical positive arising from information provide by David Jacobs to the NFL. Jacobs previously publicly identified former Dallas Cowboys football player Matt Lehr as purchaser of anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
I spoke with Bob Johnson of Posedown Magazine Saturday night at the 2008 NPC Lone Star Classic in Plano, Texas; he told me Jacobs behavior and actions were not a big surprise. Last night, Johnson told Jason Trahan of the Dallas Morning News that he is not surprised that Jacobs is hurting people in death as he did in life (”Plano steroids trafficker told newspaper he supplied Cowboys player,” June 10).
“I don’t believe anything Jacobs said. He died the way he lived his life – always taking somebody down with him.”
There is the likely possibility that David Jacobs could take down several more people posthumously. Before he died, he identified many names of individuals who allegedly purchased anabolic steroids from him; he shared the information with prosecutors, journalists, bloggers, and others who asked him about his involvement in steroid distribution. Earlier this year, Jacobs had told the Dallas Morning News that he sold anabolic steroids to football player Ryan Fowler.
Mr. Jacobs spoke to The News about his dealings with Mr. Fowler with the understanding that some details not be immediately published. After his death and after Mr. Fowler’s attorney linked the league’s action to Mr. Jacobs, The News decided to make some of the information public.
Mr. Jacobs said that with his help, Mr. Fowler, who played in Dallas from 2004 to 2006, went from making $400,000 as a Cowboy to signing a four-year, $11.5 million contract with the Titans, where he was a starting linebacker last season.
“After he got his big contract, he came back, knocked on my door and hugged me,” Mr. Jacobs said. “He said, thanks, I just got $12 million.”
Mr. Jacobs also divulged this information to federal prosecutors over the last year.
In addition, he turned over text messages, e-mails and other evidence of his dealings with Mr. Fowler and other players to the NFL in recent weeks in an attempt to “clean up” the game.
Jacobs showed no reluctance dropping names of “steroid customers” when I interviewed him earlier this year. There is no reason to suspect that he did not share the same information with prosecutors.
They asked me about a few people. They asked me about ********* and they ask me about *********. And for obvious reasons, I was in magazines and videos with them and everything like that so there was a very clear link and association. And they ask me straight up, “Has ********* ever been involved in distributing steroids?” And I said absolutely not, not in any way. As a matter of fact, he has been very adamant and not ever being involved in any of it. He has a good contract, he has an export business, and he has his own gym. The guy wouldn’t even need to think about doing anything like that. He is making great money on his own. Then they just said ‘ok.’ And that was the first and last time they ever asked about him.
[...]
If I were to tell them every single person that I sold steroids to, then half the IFBB would go away. That would just be ridiculous. That’s why people who know me and know who are my friends are and who I have been involved with, that’s why they still stand by me and say thanks for being strong and being cool because… As you can see ********** hasn’t been arrested. As you can see, ********* and *********, and all these other guys they haven’t been arrested. Nothing has happened to them.
[...]
I think ********* and ********* and ********* and ********* and all these guys who have not been brought in or anything like that attests to the fact that they are not targeting bodybuilders. And not only that, it attests to the fact that I didn’t do anything or say anything to get them in trouble.
Three of the seven co-defendants indicted for their role in David Jacobs’ Texas-based steroid distribution network were sentenced today including David Jacobs. All seven co-conspirators have already pleaded guilty. David Jacobs, Amber Jarrell and Matt Williams all received probation along with a monetary fine based on their respective role in the steroid operation (”Plano steroids supplier wants to help clean up NFL,” May 2)
Sentenced Thursday: Mr. Jacobs, 35, ringleader, three years’ probation and a $25,000 fine. Amber Jarrell, 37, of Plano, his former girlfriend, three years’ probation and a $1,000 fine. Matt Williams, 39, of Dallas, who helped bottle and store the steroids, three years’ probation and a $10,000 fine.
Awaiting sentences: Andrew Schenck of Dallas; Juan Carlos Ballivian of Houston; Brandon Mark Smith of the Dallas area; and Jamie Mongeau of Wichita, Kan.
David Jacobs told the Dallas Morning News that now he plans on helping the NFL tackle their unacknowledged steroid problem.
The ringleader of one of the largest steroids trafficking networks in the nation said Thursday after he was sentenced to probation that he plans to meet with the NFL to share his expertise to help “clean up” football.
“I want to help them understand the loopholes, how I was able to help people beat the tests, and how prevalent steroid use is,” Plano bodybuilder David Jacobs said after his sentencing hearing.
He told the New York Times that he has inside knowledge of the rampant steroid use in the NFL and exploitation of loopholes used by football players (”Steroid Maker Says He Taught About N.F.L. Loopholes,” May 2).
Jacobs, a former body builder, said he advised about 10 N.F.L. players on how to exploit loopholes in the league’s drug-testing program. One way, he said, was to have team doctors write them prescriptions for drugs that would mask steroid use…
Jacobs said he advised players, including Lehr, to ask their team doctors to write them prescriptions for finasteride, a drug used to treat balding in young men. Jacobs said a Falcons team doctor wrote Lehr a prescription for the substance.
Now that the leader of one of the largest steroid distribution rings in the country was sentenced to probation along with two other co-conspirators, it seems to confirm that steroid dealers were not the targets of the federal steroid investigation in Texas. It appears that the real targets of the investigation are professional athletes, namely NFL football players with David Jacobs providing the steroids and football link.
Will David Jacobs represent the NFL’s BALCO?
The steroid source at the center of a major federal steroid investigation in Texas has, for the first time, publicly named NFL football player Matt Lehr (currently with the New Orleans Saints) as a customer. Matt Lehr has been a target of the investigation for some time. David Jacobs claims to have sold significant quantities of performance enhancing drugs to Matt Lehr, including anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (”Plano steroids dealer says he sold to former Dallas Cowboys player,” April 27).
Mr. Jacobs, 35, said, “I sold steroids and a significant amount of growth hormone to Matt Lehr.” He said Mr. Lehr’s purchases totaled tens of thousands of dollars from spring 2006 to spring 2007, significantly larger quantities than could be for personal use.
At one point, Mr. Jacobs said, Mr. Lehr agreed to have boxes of raw steroid powder from China shipped to Mr. Lehr’s house in Georgia. Mr. Jacobs said he asked his former friend to do this because too many packages headed to his Plano house were being seized by U.S. Customs.
David Jacobs has previously denied providing federal prosecutors with the names of customers who bought steroids from him stressing that evidence and associations with Lehr were established independent of his cooperation. He has repeatedly been advised by his attorney to avoid publicly naming names. Why did Jacobs name Matt Lehr this weekend?
Mr. Jacobs said he was speaking out now because he was angry about Mr. Coggins’ statements last week to The News.
“We have been told by the prosecutors that they do not intend to bring charges against Matt Lehr in connection with their ongoing steroid investigation,” Mr. Coggins said Wednesday.
“It’s an issue of right and wrong,” Mr. Jacobs said. “I’m taking responsibility for my actions. And I’m not blaming people for my mistakes. I’m not going to lay down while other people attack my character and my integrity and accuse me of extortion and lies and making up information. It’s time for Matt to be a man.”
Paul Coggins, Matt Lehr’s attorney, claims that David Jacobs is providing false information in exchange for prosecutorial leniency in sentencing; Coggins also told the New York Times that Jacobs tried to extort money from Matt Lehr.
“He threatened Matt and said you have to pay my attorney’s fees or I am going to end your career,” Coggins said in a telephone interview on Saturday. He said Lehr met Jacobs when they were bodybuilders.
“Jacobs saw Matt as a guy with a lot of money and Matt declined to pay his fees,” Coggins added.
Coggins, the former United States attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said he had represented Lehr for three months. “We are confident that the more the feds look at Jacobs, the less credible of a source of information he becomes,” Coggins said.
It will be interesting to see how Matt Lehr’s attorney responds to David Jacobs’ latest allegations along with evidence of significant financial links between Lehr and Jacobs.
Paul Coggins, the attorney for NFL football player Matt Lehr, announced that federal prosecutors would not indict his client on steroid distribution charges (”Attorney says ex-Cowboy Lehr won’t be indicted; investigators won’t confirm statement,” April 24).
“We have been told by the prosecutors that they do not intend to bring charges against Matt Lehr in connection with their ongoing steroid investigation,” said Paul Coggins in Dallas. “After reviewing the evidence gathered to date, the government reached the right conclusion.”
John Ratcliffe, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas, which is conducting the investigation, would not confirm Mr. Coggins’ statement.
“We are actively investigating the distribution of illegal steroids and human growth hormone,” he said. “As a matter of policy, we neither identify nor comment upon persons of interest in ongoing investigations.”
A source close to the steroid investigation told MESO-Rx that the steroids and football investigation is far from over. Whether the ongoing investigation involves Matt Lehr remains to be seen.
A federal investigation in North Texas uncovered one of the largest anabolic steroid distribution networks in the country; evidence seized during the course of the investigation allegedly implicated Matt Lehr. According to the Dallas Morning News and New York Times, a grand jury was convened with subpoenas for at least a couple of NFL players (former and active) to testify against Lehr for alleged steroid distribution in the NFL.
A federal steroid investigation in Texas that shut down a major steroid source in the Texas is now targeting an NFL football player. Matt Lehr, currently with the New Orleans Saints but previously with the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Falcons, was one of the subjects of a grand jury investigation convening in Texas according to the New York Times. At least one active NFL player from the Atlanta Falcons was subpoenaed to testify against Lehr on possible steroid distribution charges (”Former Dallas Cowboy named in steroid investigation,” April 8 ).
Amateur bodybuilder David Jacobs was the steroid source that was busted in May 2007. Jacobs had extensive ties to both amateur and professional bodybuilders; he was widely recognized in the sport as IFBB Pro Branch Warren’s training partner. Fortunately for the sport of bodybuilding, bodybuilders were NOT the target of the federal investigation. It now appears that the end target(s) of the U.S. attorney’s office are professional football player(s).
David Jacobs had also previously trained with NFL player Matt Lehr in Texas. Lehr’s former girlfriend, female bodybuilder Andrea Trent, confirmed that David Jacobs and Matt Lehr were close.
“David and Matt were close and pretty tight,” said Ms. Trent, adding that they worked out together “all the time.”
Branch Warren has distanced himself from David Jacobs but surprisingly has come to the defense of football player Matt Lehr in the Dallas Morning News.
Local pro bodybuilder Branch Warren, who used to train with Mr. Jacobs, said he is friends with Mr. Lehr and does not believe the NFL player has ever done anything illegal.
“My understanding is, Mr. Lehr was suspended and he moved on with his life,” said Mr. Warren, who lives in Tarrant County. “Matt made a mistake, and he admitted to it. He’s a good guy.
“He’s an NFL player. Why would he sell drugs, someone who makes that kind of money?”
Mr. Warren said that although he does not condone steroid use, he believes it is pervasive in professional sports.
Matt Lehr’s attorney is trying to discredit Jacobs suggesting that the case against Lehr will be dropped due to faulty information provided by Jacobs. But David Jacobs has denied providing federal prosecutors with the names of customers who bought steroids from him stressing that evidence and associations with Lehr were established independent of his cooperation.
Mr. Jacobs denies that he gave up any of his customers’ names to prosecutors. But he says during the course of their investigation of him – which he says dates back to 2005 – authorities tracked his associations and developed the information on their own…
Federal prosecutors are looking at bank records, correspondence and other evidence analyzing what investigators believe could outline transactions involving anabolic steroids and human growth hormone between Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Lehr.
One thing is for certain – the federal investigation in Texas is far from over. All parties involved in related steroid cases must continue to wait for the conclusion of their respective cases while the feds pursue anabolic steroids in football.
