Marion Jones gets 6 months in doping case - The New York Times

*Catch a steroid user with bank fraud charges....








WHITE PLAINS, New York — Marion Jones, the track and field star who pleaded guilty in October to lying to federal agents about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her connection to a check-fraud case, was sentenced to six months in prison at the United States District Court here on Friday, according to wire reports.

The federal sentencing guidelines recommended Jones face anywhere from zero to six months in prison for her offenses. The maximum she could have faced was five years.


In court filings leading up to the sentencing, prosecutors asked Judge Kenneth Karras of U.S. District Court to give Jones six months in prison; Jones's lawyers said probation was enough.


At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Jones won three gold and two bronze medals, and until her admission about her drug use in October, had publicly insisted she never used performance-enhancing drugs.


It was not Jones lying about drug use that forced her to accept plea deals from the government.

*Jones's pleas were triggered by her involvement in the bank-fraud scheme.  

Prosecutors for the U.S. attorneys office in the Southern District of New York have said they had ample evidence, including Jones's signature on the $25,000 check and the testimony of other defendants in the case, many of whom have already pleaded guilty.

The strength of the government's evidence in that case was used to persuade Jones to plead guilty to the false statements to federal prosecutors in the Northern District of California, which has been leading the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative for the past five years.

Jones admitted in court that from September 2000 until July 2001, her former trainer, Trevor Graham, gave her a substance he told her was flaxseed oil.

When she stopped training with him in 2001, she said she realized it had been a performance-enhancing drug. By the time she was interviewed in the Balco investigation in November 2003, Jones said, she knew it was the designer steroid THG, known as the clear. But she had denied recognizing the substance and denied taking it in that Balco interview.


After admitting to lying about her use of steroids, Jones relinquished the three gold and two bronze medals to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

The International Olympic Committee is examining how to adjust the medal standings for more than 40 athletes who competed with and against Marion Jones at the 2000 Games.

The reallocation of medals is likely to be one of the largest that the IOC has conducted because of the breadth of Jones's accomplishments. She became the first woman to win five medals in track and field at the same Olympics.

Perhaps the biggest consequence of Jones's pleas was the damage it did for Graham, who has repeatedly denied providing his athletes with performance-enhancing drugs.

If Jones is called to testify at Graham's trial, she can no longer invoke her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination because she waived that with her guilty plea.

When Jones pleaded in October, she stood on the steps of the courthouse weeping while apologizing for lying and said she was retiring from track and field.

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Marion Jones gets 6 months in doping case - The New York Times