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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
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3 0 - 0 4 - 2 0 0 5 FLEXING MUSCLE IN COURT
By LAURA ITALIANO
April 30, 2005 -- He flexed and grinned as Mr. April, the FDNY 2004 calendar pin-up. He gleamed and jiggled as "Hot Rod," the nude dancer.
But yesterday, Rodney St. Cloud put his considerable muscle to use in a new way — fighting back in his steroid-pushing trial in a Manhattan courtroom.
And apparently, Mr. April can do more than dance: By the end of the session, his lawyers had gotten a cop to concede on the stand there's no paper trail linking St. Cloud to the $350,000 shipment of the banned drugs.
St. Cloud — a Bronx professional bodybuilder built like a stack of bowling balls — was arrested 14 months ago after his wife signed for a FedEx delivery at her Manhattan office.
Turns out the 5-pound box contained 20,000 anabolic-steroid pills — and the FedEx guys were really narcotics cops who'd intercepted the shipment when it arrived in New York from a Chinese lab. While he never touched the box personally, it was addressed directly to St. Cloud, 31, who at the time was on modified assignment with the FDNY — for a previous steroid arrest.
But yesterday, on the second day of his felony drug-possession trial, St. Cloud's lawyer got narcotics investigator Sgt. James Apostolou to admit he had nothing on his bulging quarry other than St. Cloud's name on a packing receipt.
Asked repeatedly by defense lawyer Ronald Kliegerman if authorities were ever able to document who ordered the drugs, who paid for the drugs, and how that payment was made, Apostolou repeatedly answered: "No, because it is based in China."
"They only take cash, Western Union and money orders," he added. On his arrest, St. Cloud did tell cops the package was his, the sergeant said. "He stated his wife has nothing to do with the package — it's his package."
But that admission was never recorded in any police paperwork. The sergeant also testified that St. Cloud tried to explain he was going to take the steroids himself — not sell them.
"He actually told me he uses approximately 10 pills in the morning, and 10 pills at night," Apostolou testified. "I told him that doesn't make any sense — there's 20,000."
St. Cloud denies the statements were ever made. The trial continues Monday.
1 5 - 0 5 - 2 0 0 6 Ex-Bravest a hot commodity
BY JOSE MARTINEZ Axed from the FDNY's payroll amid a steroids scandal, Rodney St. Cloud is now lighting fires - in the hearts of women.
The muscle-bound former firefighter moonlights as a male stripper on most weekends. Decked out in a mask and firefighter pants, St. Cloud strips down to next to nothing and steams up a stage before hundreds of overheated admirers. "You put on that uniform and the women just go crazy," said St. Cloud, who was "Mr. April" in the 2004 FDNY calendar. "They're like, 'Wow, can you put out my fire?'" St. Cloud, 32, was acquitted last year of having $350,000 worth of steroids mailed to his then-wife's Manhattan office. But the March 2004 bust, which followed a suspension for hawking a raunchy video of him stripping, cost St. Cloud his job. "They handed me my coat and my hat, so I figured I might as well leave," said St. Cloud, a professional bodybuilder who said he once placed 12th in a Mr. Olympia contest. The fallout from the steroids rap "destroyed" his bodybuilding career, said St. Cloud, who has admitted using the muscle-building drugs, while competing internationally. "They were legal in Europe," he said. "When this whole thing went down, I was 12th best in the world," he said. "Now, I'm not even placing." St. Cloud, who works as a Web site designer, said he has given up on returning to the FDNY. But he still dons turnout gear when he takes the stage for his weekend beefcake gigs. "Dude, I'm still a fireman," said St. Cloud, who worked out of Engine 43 in the Bronx for three years. "They can't stop me from that." St. Cloud insisted his arrest was a "setup" that was particularly embarrassing for a member of the FDNY's small minority of black firefighters. "People are coming up to me and asking me if I can get them steroids," he said. "I'm like, 'Dude, didn't you see me in handcuffs on television?'" Even after being muscled out of a job, St. Cloud said he has no regrets. He's happy with the Web business and loves peeling off his clothes before screaming women on weekends. "I'm pretty blessed," St. Cloud said. "I was able to fall back on the dancing, and that's not such a bad thing." |
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