Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/11123725.htm
DEA steroid investigation links W. Columbia doctor to NFL players
Probe targets Shortt, Panthers
By CLIF LeBLANC and DAVID NEWTON
Staff Writers
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.
Shortts attorney, Ward Bradley, said, Jims not going to have any comment right now. Hes 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.
Were 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 commissioners office, would not confirm or deny a DEA or league investigation. But he said he doubts any NFL player could escape the leagues drug tests.
We think weve 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 patients testosterone readings.
Steroids and human growth hormones are banned by the NFL.
GROWING STEROID PROBLEM
Shortts ties to NFL players come as professional baseball is under increasing scrutiny for allegations of steroid abuse.
A congressional committee examining use of the illegal synthetic male hormone has subpoenaed seven baseball stars to testify this week. Major League Baseball is fighting the demand from the House Government Reform Committee.
Meanwhile, a federal grand jury in California has been investigating Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), since fall 2003 for suspicion of supplying performance-enhancing drugs to professional and Olympic athletes.
Congress in 1991 declared steroids to be controlled substances available legally only by prescription. Bulking up or improving athletic performance are not considered medically valid, according to federal law.
Steroids, developed in the 1930s, are prescribed legally mostly for impotent men or for boys having trouble reaching puberty, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In addition, AIDS patients with weakened muscles are given steroids to counter the debilitating effects of the disease, the government institute said.
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 Shortts 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.
Lawrences statement was used to get a judge to approve the raid of Shortts 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 Shortts 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 Lawrences statement.
In Shortts 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, Lawrences 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 Lawrences 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 pharmacys 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 Shortts 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 Perrys chambers. The attorneys agreed not to mention Shortts 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 dont believe anything will be said we dont already know about, prosecutor Winston Holliday told Perry during the discussion on whether the hearing would be closed.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com. Reach Newton at (803) 802-2091 or dnewton@thestate.com.
---------------
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/11123738.htm
Case unusual for whos investigating
Shortt being scrutinized by federal, not state, agencies
By CLIF LeBLANC
Staff Writer
STEROID PROBE
Federal prosecutions for steroid abuse are rare, and of doctors who prescribe it even more extraordinary, said a New York attorney who specializes in the field.
Federal criminal cases require that large volumes of the drug be involved before violators are subject to prison sentences, New York City lawyer Rick Collins said. That high standard leads to few cases in federal court.
Typically, most steroid prosecutions the overwhelming number are brought in state courts, said Collins, who said he has been involved in more than 1,000 such cases as a lawyer or a consultant.
Prosecutions of physicians are more unusual. Collins could recall two since 1995, one in Pennsylvania and one in California.
Congress criminalized anabolic steroids in 1990 when it designated synthetic growth hormones as controlled substances in the same class as methamphetamine, opium and morphine, Collins said.
Under that law, which took effect in 1991, steroids are illegal unless prescribed by a physician.
Separate federal regulations limit doctors to prescribing steroids only for a legitimate medical purpose. By implication, Collins said, bulking up is not a legal purpose.
Convictions of doctors carry up to five years in prison and $250,000 fines per violation.
Anyone else convicted in federal court of possessing the synthetic male hormone can receive up to one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine.
Illegally selling steroids carries a maximum penalty of five years and/or a $250,000 fine.
South Carolina is among about a dozen states that specifically make use of steroids for muscle growth a crime, he said.
Prescribing steroids for that purpose is a felony punishable by up to five years and/or fines of $5,000 for the first offense. The penalty doubles starting at the second offense, according to state statute.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.
DEA steroid investigation links W. Columbia doctor to NFL players
Probe targets Shortt, Panthers
By CLIF LeBLANC and DAVID NEWTON
Staff Writers
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.
Shortts attorney, Ward Bradley, said, Jims not going to have any comment right now. Hes 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.
Were 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 commissioners office, would not confirm or deny a DEA or league investigation. But he said he doubts any NFL player could escape the leagues drug tests.
We think weve 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 patients testosterone readings.
Steroids and human growth hormones are banned by the NFL.
GROWING STEROID PROBLEM
Shortts ties to NFL players come as professional baseball is under increasing scrutiny for allegations of steroid abuse.
A congressional committee examining use of the illegal synthetic male hormone has subpoenaed seven baseball stars to testify this week. Major League Baseball is fighting the demand from the House Government Reform Committee.
Meanwhile, a federal grand jury in California has been investigating Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), since fall 2003 for suspicion of supplying performance-enhancing drugs to professional and Olympic athletes.
Congress in 1991 declared steroids to be controlled substances available legally only by prescription. Bulking up or improving athletic performance are not considered medically valid, according to federal law.
Steroids, developed in the 1930s, are prescribed legally mostly for impotent men or for boys having trouble reaching puberty, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
In addition, AIDS patients with weakened muscles are given steroids to counter the debilitating effects of the disease, the government institute said.
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 Shortts 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.
Lawrences statement was used to get a judge to approve the raid of Shortts 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 Shortts 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 Lawrences statement.
In Shortts 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, Lawrences 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 Lawrences 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 pharmacys 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 Shortts 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 Perrys chambers. The attorneys agreed not to mention Shortts 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 dont believe anything will be said we dont already know about, prosecutor Winston Holliday told Perry during the discussion on whether the hearing would be closed.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com. Reach Newton at (803) 802-2091 or dnewton@thestate.com.
---------------
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/11123738.htm
Shortt being scrutinized by federal, not state, agencies
By CLIF LeBLANC
Staff Writer
STEROID PROBE
Federal prosecutions for steroid abuse are rare, and of doctors who prescribe it even more extraordinary, said a New York attorney who specializes in the field.
Federal criminal cases require that large volumes of the drug be involved before violators are subject to prison sentences, New York City lawyer Rick Collins said. That high standard leads to few cases in federal court.
Typically, most steroid prosecutions the overwhelming number are brought in state courts, said Collins, who said he has been involved in more than 1,000 such cases as a lawyer or a consultant.
Prosecutions of physicians are more unusual. Collins could recall two since 1995, one in Pennsylvania and one in California.
Congress criminalized anabolic steroids in 1990 when it designated synthetic growth hormones as controlled substances in the same class as methamphetamine, opium and morphine, Collins said.
Under that law, which took effect in 1991, steroids are illegal unless prescribed by a physician.
Separate federal regulations limit doctors to prescribing steroids only for a legitimate medical purpose. By implication, Collins said, bulking up is not a legal purpose.
Convictions of doctors carry up to five years in prison and $250,000 fines per violation.
Anyone else convicted in federal court of possessing the synthetic male hormone can receive up to one year in prison and/or a $1,000 fine.
Illegally selling steroids carries a maximum penalty of five years and/or a $250,000 fine.
South Carolina is among about a dozen states that specifically make use of steroids for muscle growth a crime, he said.
Prescribing steroids for that purpose is a felony punishable by up to five years and/or fines of $5,000 for the first offense. The penalty doubles starting at the second offense, according to state statute.
Reach LeBlanc at (803) 771-8664 or cleblanc@thestate.com.
