Joseph Dion, currently a Miami-based personal trainer, told two Sports Illustrated reporters that he was the individual identified as “Max” in Jose Canseco’s book Vindicated. Canseco claimed that Max was a steroid dealer who provided baseball player Alex Rodriguez with steroids.
Dion has refuted Canseco’s claims and told Sports Illustrated that he is completely anti-steroid (”The man behind the Max,” April 18).
“That’s really, really funny because I am the one person that hates steroids,” Dion said. “I’m against it 100 percent. And, A-Rod, at the time that I trained him — and this I swear to God — was 100 percent against steroids. He was one of the hardest working guys, and most natural guy, that I’ve met in my life. He hated steroids. We talked about it.”
It remains to be seen how this latest revelation will affect the steroid witch hunt in baseball. Federal investigators are scheduled to meet with Jose Canseco on Tuesday to discuss steroids in baseball; investigators are expected to ask Canseco about Joseph Dion, Alex Rodriguez, Roger Clemens, and other Major League Baseball players.
While Canseco is only expected to testify as a witness, it is possible the steroid witch hunt could take a turn in another direction (”Identity of Max revealed: Rodriguez may face questions from investigators,” April 19).
When he meets with investigators on Tuesday, he could be in a vulnerable position, said Daniel C. Richman, a professor of law at Columbia University and a former federal prosecutor.
“It sounds like the government is looking at Canseco as just a witness,” Richman said. “But a witness who proves uncooperative can easily turn into a subject or even a target if the government wants to push hard. And the range of statements that Canseco has already made in his book and to Congress will make it easier for investigators to pin him down, forcing him to either reaffirm past claims or explicitly deny them. He has far less wiggle room than witnesses who can fairly claim not to remember.”
Federal investigators are going to ask Jose Canseco about the true identity of a steroid dealer identified as “Max” in his latest book on steroids in baseball, Vindicated: Big Names, Big Liars, and the Battle to Save Baseball
In the case of Canseco, federal authorities are hoping that his unapologetic use of steroids will lead them not only to Max, but to other suppliers, according to the lawyer familiar with the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Canseco’s lawyer, Greg S. Emerson, plans to ask federal authorities for immunity so that Canseco does not risk incriminating himself. If a grand jury convenes in the Roger Clemens’ perjury case, Canseco may be subpoenaed to testify under oath.
Patrick Arnold of Ergopharm tells me that he is angered by the conviction of cyclist Tammy Thomas today. She was convicted of three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. In his email, Pat tells MESO-Rx:
I feel saddened and disgusted by Tammy’s conviction. Its been almost FIVE YEARS since Balco. Why are we still going after athletes? How can a wound ever heal if we keep sticking our fingers in it? They say its for the kids. Well how does keeping steroids in the news over and over again do anything except arouse their curiousity? This is not about the kids. Its about the careers and egos of federal politicians, prosecutors, and law enforcement agents.
When the jury read the conviction in court today, Tammy Thomas addressed the prosecution and jury that convicted her (”Cyclist Tammy Thomas convicted in steroids case,” April 4). Read more
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.
The New York Times reports that IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitsky is making inquiries about several fitness professionals in the Houston area in an effort to substantiate the use of anabolic steroids and growth hormone by Roger Clemens in a possible federal perjury case. They have asked a former employee about Houston fitness guru Shaun K. Kelley, the owner of Shaun Kelley Weight Control.
Novitzky, who has spent the past five and a half years investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs in professional sports, maintains a lead role in the perjury investigation, the lawyers said, and is interested in questioning a number of people in Houston, including Kelley.
As a result of the New York Times story and Kelley’s implied association with Clemens and performance enhancing drugs, the blogosphere has already started digging up dirt on Shaun Kelley.
Kelley told the New York Post last night on the phone that he never sold performancing enhancing drugs.
“Roger Clemens has never been in my store,” Kelley told The Post in a phone interview last night. “I’ve never sold steroids or growth hormone.” [...]
“That’s all the information these clowns from The Times have,” he said. “That is the weakest report I’ve ever seen printed. If all that they can come up with, they need to find new reporters.
“I will give the FBI a polygraph. I do not deal drugs. I’ve never done anything with Roger Clemens except shake his hand.”
Recently, Kelly Blair, another Houston fitness professional, made national headlines due to his association with MLB baseball player Andy Pettitte and alleged distribution of growth hormone and steroids; the media tried unsuccessfully to find links between Blair and Clemens but settled on trying to link him with a former pro bodybuilder awaiting trial on murder charges.
Obviously, the unwanted attention, unsubstantiated allegations, and government leaks by lawyers close to the investigation are bad for business in Houston fitness industry.
