|
1 3 - 0 3 - 2 0 0 5
DEA steroid investigation links W. Columbia doctor to NFL players
Probe targets Shortt, Panthers
By CLIF LeBLANC and DAVID NEWTON
Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005
The State
Federal agents are investigating whether a West Columbia alternative
medicine physician illegally prescribed steroids and other
performance-enhancing drugs to athletes, including current and
former members of the Carolina Panthers, according to sources and
court records.
Some of the NFL players — patients of Dr. James Shortt — were on the
Panthers team that competed in Super Bowl XXXVIII in January 2004,
sources familiar with the investigation said, speaking on condition
of anonymity.
Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said he is aware of an
investigation linking Shortt to players.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents are questioning at least nine
active and former players of the Charlotte team, one of the sources
said.
Investigators also have audio tapes of conversations between Shortt
and his patients, including some Panthers players, the source said.
Shortt’s attorney, Ward Bradley, said, “Jim’s not going to have any
comment right now. He’s just not going to do it.”
The Panthers’ Hurney said he knows a probe is under way involving
current and former players and their involvement with Shortt.
“We’re aware there is an investigation of a doctor down there,”
Hurney said of the Columbia area. Hurney acknowledged the doctor is
Shortt. “We were under the impression (the players) were ...
witnesses for a case for this doctor.”
National Football League players are drug tested during the
pre-season under league policy, and no Panther has tested positive
for steroids, Hurney said. Positive tests would bring players an
automatic four-game suspension.
Greg Aiello, a spokesman for the NFL commissioner’s office, would
not confirm or deny a DEA or league investigation. But he said he
doubts any NFL player could escape the league’s drug tests.
“We think we’ve got the best program in sports,” Aiello said.
Besides pre-season testing, at least seven players are randomly
tested weekly per team, he said.
Hurney said the Panthers received a subpoena last month for
addresses of current and former players with ties to Shortt so
investigators could contact them. He said he did not see the
subpoena and did not know the names on it or which government agency
submitted it.
But Panthers spokesman Charlie Dayton said the subpoena was from the
DEA.
Citing government policy, neither John Ozaluk, the senior DEA agent
in South Carolina, nor interim U.S. Attorney Johnny Gasser would
confirm or deny that Shortt, 58, is under investigation for
illegally dispensing steroids.
No charges have been filed.
The penalty for each conviction of illegally prescribing steroids is
up to five years in prison, with fines as high as $250,000.
It had been known publicly, from the solicitor in Lexington County
and the DEA, only that Shortt was under criminal and regulatory
investigation for:
• Dispensing intravenous hydrogen peroxide to Katherine Bibeau, a
multiple sclerosis patient from Minnesota who died within days
• Telling another patient, Mike Bate of Columbia, how to get the
illegal cancer drug laetrile and giving him testosterone, which
violated standard medical protocol because Bate was dying of
prostate cancer, which is fed by testosterone
Steroids or human growth hormones can be prescribed legally.
Doctors, however, must find a legitimate medical reason. Often,
physicians diagnose a condition called hypogonadism. That means a
male is not producing enough testosterone.
Two sources familiar with the investigation and a sworn police
statement indicate Shortt prescribed the drugs regardless of the
patient’s testosterone readings.
Steroids and human growth hormones are banned by the NFL.
EARLY ALLEGATIONS
The investigation of Shortt dates to May 2004 when a Columbia
bodybuilder told a DEA agent that Shortt had a reputation for
readily prescribing steroids for patients who paid him $1,000,
according to a sworn statement by a State Law Enforcement Division
agent.
The bodybuilder came forward four months before the September raid
of Shortt’s Health Dimensions office and Congaree Pharmacy, which
shares a building with him near Columbia Metropolitan Airport.
State and federal agents seized computer data, at least 21 boxes of
patient and medical records and 256 audio cassette tapes, search
documents obtained by The State newspaper show.
The search documents identify the confidential informant as a
bodybuilder who operated a gym. He told a DEA agent Shortt was well
known among steroid users for writing prescriptions to anyone who
paid about $1,000 for medical tests, according to the sworn
affidavit by Dave Lawrence, a SLED agent working on the case. SLED
and the DEA have worked on the case together.
Lawrence’s statement was used to get a judge to approve the raid of
Shortt’s office and the pharmacy. Using the Freedom of Information
Act, The State obtained copies of the warrant, the affidavit and the
list of what was seized from Shortt’s office.
Investigators also found testosterone and the human growth hormone
Saizen, another substance that some athletes use to improve their
performance, records show.
EASY PRESCRIPTIONS
The bodybuilder told authorities he became a Shortt patient in 2002.
When he did, he learned it was easy to get steroids from Shortt, the
bodybuilder told the DEA, according to Lawrence’s statement.
In Shortt’s office, the bodybuilder was asked to give blood, urine
and hair samples and pay nearly $1,000. The bodybuilder was not told
of or shown test results, Lawrence’s statement shows.
When Shortt met later with the muscular, 215-pound man, he asked,
“What are your goals?” The bodybuilder replied he wanted to “get
bigger.”
“Dr. Shortt willingly prescribed ... testosterone and Deca
Durabolin,” according to Lawrence’s affidavit.
Deca Durabolin is among the most popular injectable steroids for
men, according to Web sites that market the drug. It maximizes
muscle growth with minimal side effects. But it can be detected by
drug screens for as long as a year.
Shortt prescribed steroid injections without telling the bodybuilder
how, how often or where to inject himself, the athlete told
investigators.
The bodybuilder admitted he did not need instructions because he had
used steroids before.
Within nine months, the man put on 30 pounds of additional muscle
after seeing Shortt every three months, according to the affidavit.
The bodybuilder told investigators he filled the prescriptions at
Congaree Pharmacy.
COURTROOM CONFRONTATION
The steroid allegations surfaced in federal court during a legal tug
of war this month. The court fight involved the pharmacy’s
inadvertent release of all prescriptions it filled for Shortt.
Columbia lawyer Richard Gergel got the records in January when he
requested documents as part of preparation for a medical malpractice
lawsuit against Shortt in the March 14, 2004, death of Bibeau, the
multiple sclerosis patient.
Richland County Coroner Gary Watts ruled her death was a homicide
caused by Shortt. But no charges have been filed.
Pharmacy attorney Dawes Cooke acknowledged that his client
mistakenly sent Gergel records of prescriptions it filled for all of
Shortt’s patients, not just Bibeau.
Cooke argued during the March 3 hearing before Judge Matthew Perry
that the records should be kept secret under federal patient privacy
law.
“Does the public have any need to know that athletes are getting
steroids, that patients are getting Viagra ... those are things that
are in these records,” Cooke said.
Gergel countered that he had a duty to disclose a possible crime and
a threat to the public.
“His whole operation was ... a racket,” Gergel said in court. “This
hydrogen peroxide was just a part of a major racket. Professional
football players knew this is where you get your steroids, your
needles, your syringes.”
Gergel told the judge Shortt was dispensing “steroids, needles and
syringes in huge volumes.”
In an earlier letter to pharmacy lawyers, Gergel wrote that the
13-page prescription report “appears to reveal widespread criminal
activity ... with an indication that wrongdoing may have continued
after the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division executed its
search warrant.”
“I think when the whole story is eventually told,” Gergel told
Perry, “this is going to be BALCO east,” a reference to the wide
ranging San Francisco investigation.
Neither Gergel nor Cooke elaborated on what they said to Perry or
wrote in documents filed with the court.
Gergel gave the prescription records to the CBS television news
magazine, “60 Minutes.” He argued his clients want to warn the
public against Shortt.
Cooke accused Gergel of releasing the records in an effort to
strong-arm the pharmacy into settling the Bibeau suit.
Perry rejected a request from Cooke to have The State newspaper
barred from the hearing or to hold it in Perry’s chambers. The
attorneys agreed not to mention Shortt’s patients by name.
Shortt and his attorney attended the hearing but left without
commenting before it ended.
Three federal prosecutors, who work on criminal matters, were in
court to hear arguments in the civil lawsuit.
“I don’t believe anything will be said we don’t already know about,”
prosecutor Winston Holliday told Perry during the discussion on
whether the hearing would be closed.
[Link]
2 3 - 0 3 - 2 0 0 5
Transcripts offer insights into Panthers steroids report
BY CHARLES CHANDLER
Knight Ridder Newspapers
The Charlotte Observer
Tue, Mar. 22, 2005
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - (KRT) - The first public discussion of a link
between pro football players and a West Columbia, S.C., physician
regarding possible steroid abuse came during a March 3 court hearing
in which attorneys debated the inadvertent disclosure of
prescription records.
"We won't get into any individuals, but let me say, professional
football players knew this is where you get your steroids, and this
is where you get your needles and syringes," Columbia attorney
Richard Gergel said of Dr. James M. Shortt's medical practice in a
U.S. District Court hearing in Columbia, according an official
transcript obtained by The Charlotte Observer.
"You will see repeated instances of steroids and needles and
syringes in huge volumes."
According to court files, Gergel was mistakenly given a 13-page
listing of prescriptions filed for Shortt by Congaree Pharmacy,
which is located next door to the doctor's office. Gergel received
the report from pharmacy attorneys after requesting discovery
related to a client's medical malpractice lawsuit against Shortt.
Pharmacy attorneys said they should have blacked out the names of
all patients unrelated to the lawsuit because of medical privacy
laws, but failed to do so.
"We made a mistake," pharmacy attorney Dawes Cooke testified. "We
will take the hit for that."
They requested the hearing to get a protective order for the
information included in the prescription report.
Neither the Carolina Panthers nor any of their players were
specifically mentioned in the hearing, but team officials have
acknowledged being subpoenaed by the Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) for contact information for some current and former team
members. Team general manager Marty Hurney said the players were
sought as witnesses in the Shortt case, and that they are not
targets of the investigation.
The State newspaper in Columbia, S.C., has reported that DEA agents
sought to speak with at least nine current and former Panthers, some
of whom were on the team's Super Bowl team in Feb. 2004. The paper,
citing unnamed sources, said the DEA has audiotapes of discussions
between Shortt and Panthers players.
Tuesday, Gergel declined comment when asked if Panthers players'
names were on the prescription list, citing the seal placed on the
information after the hearing.
Pharmacy attorneys objected during the hearing to Gergel having
forwarded a copy of the prescription report to the CBS News program
"60 Minutes," which aired a report on Shortt's malpractice case in
January. They asked Judge Matthew Perry Jr. to tell Gergel to try to
retrieve the information from "60 Minutes." He declined.
Multiple NFL sources have said "60 Minutes" is planning another
report to address Shortt's ties with Panthers players. A spokesman
for "60 Minutes" declined comment.
Gergel wrote in a court brief filed before the March 3 hearing that
the prescription report revealed "widespread" dispensing of steroids
and steroid enhancers to professional athletes, in violation of
federal and state law.
He said in the hearing that the report was "the Rosetta stone of
scamming practices" by Shortt.
"It is a damaging, devastating document," he testified.
Gergel is representing the family of a Minnesota woman, Katherine
Bibeau, who died after receiving treatment from Shortt for multiple
sclerosis. A coroner's report linked her death to hydrogen peroxide
injections she received from Shortt.
State and federal investigators have been probing Shortt's potential
involvement with illegal steroid prescriptions for nearly a year.
South Carolina Law Enforcement Division investigator David Lawrence
said in an affidavit that an unnamed bodybuilder told him last May
that Shortt was known for prescribing steroids for patients who paid
him $1,000. That information led to a September raid of Shortt's
office and Congaree Pharmacy. Records show officers confiscated
testosterone and the human growth hormone Saizen, both of which are
sometimes used illegally by athletes to enhance performance.
Gergel said in the hearing that athletes were given medications to
calm "steroid rage."
He also testified that athletes were prescribed cancer medication in
combination with steroids to enhance effects.
Experts in the sports nutrition and steroid-testing industry told
the Observer that drugs such as tamoxifen, used to treat women for
breast cancer, are often combined with anabolic steroids by body
builders or athletes to help curtail estrogen buildup in male
steroid users, which helps prevent such side affects as men's
breasts developing unnaturally.
The transcript of the March 3 court hearing showed that Gergel and
pharmacy attorney Dawes Cooke made multiple references to Gergel's
claim of steroid prescriptions to athletes. Cooke, who had sought a
closed hearing, said: "Does the public have any need to know that
athletes are getting steroids?"
Cooke later said in his testimony: "The situation with these
football players that are getting steroids is very, very different
(from) the sick people like Ms. Bibeau, who Mr. Gergel claims to
have been victimized."
Near the end of the hearing, Cooke told Judge Matthew J. Perry Jr.
that he needed to clarify his remarks about steroids at the urging
of a fellow attorney.
"Mr. (Jay) Jones pulled me by the sleeve and said, `Be sure the
court understand that when you say `football players getting
steroids' we were referring to the allegations by the plaintiff, and
certainly not in any way endorsing any of the allegations that have
been made in this case."
When contacted Tuesday by the Observer, Cooke said he could neither
confirm nor deny Gergel's testimony alleging the prescription
records showed pro football players received steroid prescriptions
from Shortt. "I was speaking generically of those allegations," said
Cooke. "In fact, I don't know the truth of them."
Cooke said he sought the hearing because he objected to the public
disclosure of private medical information.
Cooke said in the hearing Gergel was trying to influence the case by
releasing the prescription report to "60 Minutes." Gergel claimed
that his intent was to warn the public.
[Link]
3 0 - 0 3 - 2 0 0 5
CBS report: Three Panthers fill prescriptions for steroids in 2004
By CHARLES CHANDLER
Tue, Mar. 29, 2005
Charlotte Observer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Two Carolina Panthers starting linemen and the
team's star punter filled prescriptions for a banned steroid less
than two weeks before playing in the 2004 Super Bowl, CBS News
announced it will report on Wednesday night.
Center Jeff Mitchell, punter Todd Sauerbrun and offensive tackle
Todd Steussie got prescriptions for anabolic steroids from Dr. James
Shortt, a West Columbia, S.C., alternative medicine physician,
according to a news release from "60 Minutes Wednesday."
Mitchell and Sauerbrun still play for the Panthers. Steussie is now
with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
None of the players named in the news release could be reached
Tuesday. Steussie declined comment through a spokesman for the
Buccaneers. Mitchell hasn't returned repeated telephone calls from
the Charlotte Observer over the past week. When the Observer reached
Sauerbrun last week, he referred calls to his agent, who declined
comment.
The CBS news release said Sauerbrun initially told "60 Minutes
Wednesday" that he liked Shortt "very much," but called back 10
minutes later and said: "Dude, we got our communications confused. I
don't know this guy."
Panthers general manager Marty Hurney said the allegations were
troubling.
"Obviously, any time there are allegations made about members of
your organization like this, it concerns us greatly," Hurney said.
Anabolic steroids can help medical patients build muscle mass,
weight and strength - and they are banned by professional and
college sports organizations and the Olympics to prevent athletes
from using them to enhance performance. Possible harm from heavy,
long-term steroid use also is feared.
Steroid-abuse scandals have arisen in athletics since the 1970s.
Olympic athletes have been stripped of medals for positive tests,
the use of steroids by Major League Baseball players resulted in
recent Congressional hearings, and the BALCO laboratory in
California is being investigated for possibly providing a modified
steroid to top athletes in baseball, the NFL and track and field.
Citing prescription records, "60 Minutes Wednesday" said Steussie
filled 11 prescriptions for testosterone cream over an eight-month
period in 2004, that Mitchell was given testosterone seven times,
and that Sauerbrun was given the injectable anabolic steroid
stanozolol and syringes in addition to testosterone.
Testosterone and stanozolol are banned by the NFL. Players who test
positive or are found to have used the substances are subject to a
four-game suspension without pay for a first offense under the
league's policy against steroids and related substances.
Hurney said he disagrees with anyone who might think the news taints
the team's lone Super Bowl appearance.
"People can say and think what they say and think, but anybody who
knows our organization knows what we stand for and how we operate
internally on a daily basis," Hurney said. "So many people worked
hard to get to the Super Bowl. I don't think anyone can say these
allegations are the reason we accomplished what we did."
The Panthers previously acknowledged that they had been subpoenaed
by the Drug Enforcement Administration so agents could contact some
players about Shortt. Team officials have insisted the players were
witnesses and not targets of the investigation.
The State newspaper in Columbia reported March13 that at least nine
Panthers players were subpoenaed. Hurney said he didn't know whether
the DEA believes players other than Mitchell, Sauerbrun and Steussie
were patients of Shortt.
In an exclusive interview with the Observer on Tuesday morning,
Shortt wouldn't confirm he had treated Panthers players, citing
medical privacy laws. But he said of the report that Panthers
players had been sought for questioning about him: "That's my
understanding as well."
Shortt said he doesn't prescribe steroids to help athletes enhance
performance and that he's appalled by doctors who do. He said he
uses steroids in minimal dosages with some patients to help them
recover from injuries, fatigue and stress.
Shortt said it was only recently that he first saw a list of banned
steroids and related substances, but didn't say whether it was the
NFL's list. He said he found it on the Internet after watching
television reports about recent Congressional hearings on steroids
in baseball. He said he didn't recognize about 90percent of the
substances on the list.
Later Tuesday, after CBS issued its news release, an attorney for
Shortt said the doctor wouldn't have known whether he was writing a
prescription for a substance banned by the NFL.
"Dr. Shortt doesn't know what the rules are for the NFL," said
Greenville-based attorney David Thomas, an S.C. senator. "That is
part of the problem. He would have depended on the NFL players to
say, `We cannot use that.' He's not an NFL expert.
"He doesn't treat based on professions. He treats everyone the same.
If there are rules for different groups, such as sheriffs, he
wouldn't know that, either."
A California-based sports nutrition specialist said Shortt or any
physician should know that stanozolol is illegal in sports. It's the
substance that led the International Olympic Committee to strip
Canadian Ben Johnson of a gold medal and 100-meter dash world record
in the 1988 Summer Olympics.
"In the context of the NFL and pro sports, it would require a doctor
who had been a hermit for 20 or 30 years to give that and claim,
`Gee, I didn't know,'" said biochemist Anthony Almada of
IMAGInutrition. " The player is even more at fault. Any player who
has a functioning brain who claims ignorance over that being on the
list. That's not a defense, I'm sorry."
The man in charge of the NFL's testing program, Dr. Don Catlin of
UCLA's Olympic Analytical Laboratory, said stanozolol is among the
more potent anabolic steroids. He said that, depending on the
dosages an athlete takes, it could clear the body and be untectable
on urine analysis tests within seven to 10 days.
"It's a pretty good choice because it's one of the harder ones to
detect," Catlin said of stanozolol. "It used to be very difficult to
detect, but we made a major breakthrough about a year and a half ago
and now it's becoming easier. But that word doesn't get around
because we don't advertise it."
Catlin said testosterone creams are much more difficult to detect on
tests because they usually stay in the body only a day or less.
"The principle behind the cream is as long as it's on the skin, it's
absorbing," Catlin said. "It's manufactured to release its contents
over 24 hours. You can put it on at 9 o'clock in the morning and if
you hear at 9:30 that (an NFL drug-tester) is coming, you can jump
in the shower and it's gone.
Catlin said the fact that athletes are using creams to increase
testosterone levels shows they have gotten savvy to the testing
season. He said the creams are usually applied to the upper arms,
lower back and abdomen and can be effective in increasing strength
and performance if taken consistently for several weeks.
Catlin said the steroids CBS says Shortt prescribed the three
players seem sophisticated in allowing anyone to avoid detection.
"That bothers me," he said.
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said the NFL is talking to the players'
union about toughening the testing for testosterone.
The CBS news release quoted former Shortt employee Mignon Simpson as
saying the doctor also prescribed and shipped human growth hormone
to "possibly half a dozen" pro football players. Human growth
hormone, which is not a steroid, also is banned by the NFL, but
Catlin said he is not able to test for it.
[Link]
|
[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
