The steroid source at the center of a major federal steroid investigation in Texas has, for the first time, publicly named NFL football player Matt Lehr (currently with the New Orleans Saints) as a customer. Matt Lehr has been a target of the investigation for some time. David Jacobs claims to have sold significant quantities of performance enhancing drugs to Matt Lehr, including anabolic steroids and human growth hormone (“Plano steroids dealer says he sold to former Dallas Cowboys player,” April 27).
Mr. Jacobs, 35, said, “I sold steroids and a significant amount of growth hormone to Matt Lehr.” He said Mr. Lehr’s purchases totaled tens of thousands of dollars from spring 2006 to spring 2007, significantly larger quantities than could be for personal use.
At one point, Mr. Jacobs said, Mr. Lehr agreed to have boxes of raw steroid powder from China shipped to Mr. Lehr’s house in Georgia. Mr. Jacobs said he asked his former friend to do this because too many packages headed to his Plano house were being seized by U.S. Customs.
David Jacobs has previously denied providing federal prosecutors with the names of customers who bought steroids from him stressing that evidence and associations with Lehr were established independent of his cooperation. He has repeatedly been advised by his attorney to avoid publicly naming names. Why did Jacobs name Matt Lehr this weekend?
Mr. Jacobs said he was speaking out now because he was angry about Mr. Coggins’ statements last week to The News.
“We have been told by the prosecutors that they do not intend to bring charges against Matt Lehr in connection with their ongoing steroid investigation,” Mr. Coggins said Wednesday.
“It’s an issue of right and wrong,” Mr. Jacobs said. “I’m taking responsibility for my actions. And I’m not blaming people for my mistakes. I’m not going to lay down while other people attack my character and my integrity and accuse me of extortion and lies and making up information. It’s time for Matt to be a man.”
Paul Coggins, Matt Lehr’s attorney, claims that David Jacobs is providing false information in exchange for prosecutorial leniency in sentencing; Coggins also told the New York Times that Jacobs tried to extort money from Matt Lehr.
He threatened Matt and said you have to pay my attorney’s fees or I am going to end your career, Coggins said in a telephone interview on Saturday. He said Lehr met Jacobs when they were bodybuilders.
Jacobs saw Matt as a guy with a lot of money and Matt declined to pay his fees, Coggins added.
Coggins, the former United States attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said he had represented Lehr for three months. We are confident that the more the feds look at Jacobs, the less credible of a source of information he becomes, Coggins said.
It will be interesting to see how Matt Lehr’s attorney responds to David Jacobs’ latest allegations along with evidence of significant financial links between Lehr and Jacobs.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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