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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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1 0 - 0 7 - 2 0 0 5 Four Lafayette Officers Placed on Administrative Leave
July 8, 2005
Four Lafayette city police officers are on paid administrative leave during an ongoing internal affairs investigation. A letter posted to Lafayette Police Department employees Thursday afternoon bans officers from working off-duty security at Club 410 in downtown Lafayette. Police officials say the ban is connected to the internal affairs investigation. Four officers are at the center of the investigation: Cpl. Keith Richard, Cpl. Trampus Gaspard, Officer Jason Galatas and Officer Jason Herpin. Richard is a k-9 officer, while Gaspard, Galatus and Herpin are members of the Metro Narcotics Unit. Lafayette police officials are reluctant to comment on this ongoing internal case. Cpl. Mark Francis/Lafayette Police: At this point, I can't discuss the 'ins and outs' of the investigation because of the officers' rights and these private businesses' rights are protected, when you're dealing with these types of investigations... In addition to the night club, police tell TV 10 a drug arrest made last month is also part of the investigation. Arrest records indicate 25-year-old Marc Cormier of Lafayette was picked up June 10th. When Metro Narcotics agents raided his home, they allegedly found 8600 grams of marijuana inside an ice chest and 21 bottles of anabolic steroids in a safe. Combined, the drugs are worth a street value of more than $45,000. Arrest records indicate that Jason Herpin was the arresting officer during the raid. He's also one of the cops being investigated by internal affairs. There are other connections between these officers and high-profile police internal investigations. Cpl. Trampus Gaspard is named in a lawsuit filed by Kevin Alexander against the police department. Alexander claims he was tasered 17 times by police during an arrest last year. Gaspard and Cpl. Keith Richard were cleared by a grand jury in the shooting death of Michael Angelle in '03. Angelle fired on officers when they were trying to execute a warrant for a drug arrest. And, police say Gaspard and Richard were both members of the S.W.A.T. team during the Zach Morris stand-off. Richard is listed in a lawsuit filed by the family. Morris was shot by police in February of 2004 after a four-hour stand-off at his home. Lafayette Consolidated Government settled the lawsuit earlier this week for $100,000. TV 10 has learned that job action could be taken against some of these officers before the internal affairs investigation is complete. 0 5 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Lafayette Police Department Drug Testing
KLFY An ongoing internal affairs investigation within the Lafayette Police Department involves two arrests for steroid charges. But, drug tests conducted on members of the Lafayette Police Department do not currently include a check for steroids.
According to arrest records, Metro Narcotics agents found marijuana and 21 bottles of anabolic steroids after they raided Marc Cormier's apartment in June of this year. Police say Cormier's arrest is part of an internal affairs case involving four Lafayette cops. The officers include Cpl. Keith Richard, Cpl. Trampus Gaspard, Officer Jason Galatus and Officer Jason Herpin. Richard and his roommate, Jesse Walton, were arrested after investigators allegedly found illegal drugs and a stolen gun in their apartment. Detectives say the drugs include steroids. Sources tell TV 10 Richard and Trampus Gaspard have been fired for violating the substance abuse policy for Lafayette Consolidated Government. Lafayette Consolidated Government administrator, Dee Stanley, says he cannot comment on personal tests or results for employees, but he did tell TV 10 the standard drug screen does not include steroids. An Acadiana drug screen company representative tells TV 10 the cost for a typical drug screen is $30 to $50. He says that cost jumps to between $200 and $250 when the test includes steroids. Stanley says federal guidelines lump police officers into the same category as office staff and administrators within the government. He says if police are tested for steroids, almost all city-parish employees would have to be tested. Chief Randy Hundley tells TV 10 Metro Narcotics agents are randomly tested twice as much as other government employees due to the nature of their work. To specifically test an individual, Lafayette Consolidated Government would need to have reasonable suspicion that the employee was using drugs. 0 9 - 0 8 - 2 0 0 5 Lawyer: Officer didn't use steroids
Marsha Sills An alleged false positive result on a drug test is the root of a civil service appeal of Lafayette police Cpl. Trampus Gaspard, one of the two police officers fired last week, said Daniel Landry, Gaspard's attorney. Landry said Gaspard tested positive for a "compound that could be considered a steroid," but the testing actually revealed a false positive result, meaning the result was read as positive for steroids, but steroids actually were not present. "We intend on establishing that Officer Gaspard was not using steroids and was in fact taking supplements that can be purchased over the counter," Landry said. He plans to file an appeal today of Gaspard's termination. The firings stem from an internal affairs investigation that began in June with four police officers - Gaspard, Cpl. John Keith Richard, Officer Jason Galatas and Officer Jason Herpin - each placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Richard also was fired last week after he was arrested for alleged possession of Lortab, a pain killer, and a stolen gun. Richard's attorney said he had a prescription for the Lortab because of a back injury that occurred five years ago. Richard also has appealed his termination. Herpin has returned to work, while Galatas' outcome still was undecided Monday, said Dee Stanley, city-parish chief administrative officer. On Monday, the city was still in the process of compiling public records requested by The Daily Advertiser last Wednesday pertaining to the officers' service records. In a written explanation received late Monday, Stanley said he is still waiting on the police department to indicate whether certain information requested can be "derived from existing databases" rather than reviewed manually. Much of the other information is under review to ensure it is available under the public records law and the police officers' "Bill of Rights," he said. "Each of the requests for information have required additional research, some of it time consuming in nature. ...," Stanley said in the letter. False positive for steroids Landry said his client was willing to take a polygraph test to prove he did not violate the city's drug policy, but investigators refused his offer. "We have support documentation that shows you can receive a false positive from the taking of these supplements," Landry said. "Unfortunately, it's very similar to much of the false positive testing they're having with Major League Baseball where some of the players have had false positives." He said Gaspard was taking supplements called methyl 1-AD and 4AD - two prohormones that increase testosterone levels. Both are on a list of steroids banned by Congress under the Anabolic Steroid Control Act of 2004, but Landry said the supplements Gaspard was taking may not fall under the federal ban. The substances are testosterone builders and were ordered off the shelves in January, said Debbie Bryant, owner of Captain Nutrition. Bryant said she was disappointed by the ban. "It didn't add to your body," she said. "It just added to your own testosterone levels. Now that they're banned, there will be a lot more people trying to buy steroids illegally." The labels didn't state that the products may produce a false positive, but it would show high levels of testosterone, Bryant said. Spark of investigation It was Herpin's arrest of Marc Cormier for possession of 21 bottles of anabolic steroids and 8,600 grams of marijuana that sparked the internal affairs investigation, according to police officials. Herpin arrested Cormier on June 10. On Monday, District Attorney Mike Harson said he still was reviewing Cormier's arrest after the validity of the search of Cormier's home was questioned. Nearly a week after the arrest of Cormier, the officers were placed on leave and later that month, all officers were prohibited from working off-duty security at Club 410 until the internal affairs investigation was complete. Police have not indicated how or if the downtown bar is related to the investigation. Although it appears the investigation was sparked by Cormier's arrest, police haven't confirmed if the investigation involves steroid use. Police officers are randomly tested for drugs per the city-parish drug policy. Typically, specialized drug screen tests must be requested by an employer to detect steroid use, said Dr. Don Langford, medical director of Acadiana Health Services and a certified medical review officer. The screener also must have permission from the employee or job applicant to conduct the test, he said. "A standard drug test wouldn't pick up steroids at all," Langford said. "The chemistry that you have to employ for testing for steroids is a rather complex chemistry. ... There would not be a false positive. That's not in the profile you check for." Landry said he has documentation that supports a false positive drug test in similar circumstances and sought out the opinion of Dr. Mauro DiPasquale, who is considered an anabolic steroid expert. Although Richard's roommate, Jesse Walton was arrested for possession of steroids, Richard's attorney, Bill Goode has said that no steroids were found in his client's possession by police. Landry said Gaspard was a member of Metro Narcotics, a joint city-parish drug task force, and added that his client had no association with the other officers or Cormier. "His only association was that he was a co-teammate with the other officers through the SWAT team," Landry said. "Mr. Gaspard has been a veteran of the police department for some time. He was a member of the SWAT team and was (drug) tested to the degree higher than a regular police officer and had no prior problems." 1 4 - 0 9 - 2 0 0 5 Third police officer fired based on probe
By KEVIN BLANCHARD LAFAYETTE -- A third police officer tied to a summer-long internal affairs investigation has been fired, a police spokesman said Tuesday. Officer Jason Galatas joins Cpls. John Keith Richard and Trampus Gaspard as officers who've been fired based on the investigation, which officials have said has ties to a downtown nightclub and a June 10 drug arrest. Gaspard and Richard were fired for allegedly violating the department's substance-abuse policy. Tuesday, Cpl. Mark Francis said only that Galatas was fired "for cause." Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley said Galatas' firing was handled through the normal police department process of investigations, hearings and review. Richard and his roommate were booked into jail last month on drug charges -- after State Police, using information gained in the internal affairs investigation, made a drug raid on the two men's home, finding illegal pharmaceuticals and steroids. The internal affairs investigation is now complete. Francis said he did not know if any more criminal charges were pending. A fourth officer, Jason Herpin, was initially placed on administrative leave pending the investigation, but was later reinstated to duty. Herpin was the arresting officer in the June 10 arrests and had been working undercover for Metro Narcotics. Officers with the State Police Bureau of Investigations, West District Narcotics and the Lafayette City Marshal's Office in August arrested Richard, a 10-year Lafayette police veteran, on charges of possession of the prescription painkiller Lortab and possession of a stolen firearm. Also arrested was Richard's roommate, Jessie Walton, 26, on a charge of possession of steroids. Word of the investigation got out in July, when police officials prohibited officers from working off-duty at Club 410, a nightclub in downtown Lafayette. Francis has said some of the officers involved in the investigation worked off-duty security at Club 410. At the time, police said that investigation was tied to the June 10 arrest of Marc Cormier, 25, of the 100 block Meaux Boulevard on charges of possession with intent to distribute drugs such as marijuana and anabolic steroids. Also charged in that June 10 arrest was Jude Dubois, 23, of Erath for possession and distribution of marijuana, and money derived from drug proceeds. |
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