The deaths of convicted steroid dealer David Jacobs and Amanda Savell have been officially ruled a murder suicide. But the Plano Police Department fucked up made a mistake by failing to pass the investigation over to an independent agency.
Why was this the obvious call?
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.
Grits for Breakfast asks what are the odds that an steroid dealer selling steroids to a major police department in Texas AND a pharmacist selling steroids to a major police department in New York both committing suicide with multiple gunshot wounds before they testify against any police officers (”Informant who accused Metroplex police of steroid use turns up dead,” June 6).
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 Plano Police Department should have learned from the “suspicious-looking” suicide in the Lowen’s Pharmacy steroid case.
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.
Roberto Pulido (aka Kiko aka Anthony Williams) was an corrupt officer with the Boston Police Department who was involved in various illegal activities including steroid dealing. He regularly imported anabolic steroids such as Winstrol, Dianabol, Deca Durabolin and Testosterone from a Greek source; he ordered them by phone, deposited funds in the source’s U.S. bank account, and received large shipments via common courier at several private homes and businesses on at least five occassions according to court documents. He even advised FBI uncover agents on how to successfully import anabolic steroids from overseas.
Pulido boasted, “the key to mailing shit (steroids) here in this country is you gotta mail it in photo paper. You know the paper, that fucking carbon paper … you buy that paper, you wrap it in that and that’s it. There’s nothing that can get an x-ray through that, and dogs can’t sniff through that.”
Pulido was so corrupt and involved in so many illegal activities that federal prosecutors didn’t even bother with steroid conspiracy or steroid distribution charges. They settled on conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin; he escorted trucks bringing at least 140 kilograms of cocaine into Boston with plans to protect shipments of 500 kg on an ongoing basis. He was sentenced to 26 years in prison for this crime.
In this unbelievable police corruption scandal, Pulido and his defense attorney blamed anabolic steroids for his crimes (”Boston officer sentenced to 26 years in drug case,” May 16).
Pulido’s public defender, who said her client’s abuse of steroids contributed to his crimes.
[...]
Pulido said he was pumped full of steroids when he suggested to undercover agents in Atlantic City that he knew a good way to transport cocaine into Boston.
He said a steroid addiction made him exaggerate many of the statements he made on the surveillance tapes and called many of his comments pure fantasy. In his mind at the time, he said, he was playing a role in a Hollywood movie. He even recited lines from “Training Day,” the film about a corrupt officer.
“Anyone who knows me knows that I was acting,” he said. “It was pure puffery.”
Pro-steroid and anti-steroid bloggers have laughed at this preposterous defense.
I will write more about the “steroids made me do it” defense aka dumbbell defense shortly.
