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Former Mets Employee Distributed Steroids
By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; 4:13 PM
SAN FRANCISCO, April 27 -- A former employee of the New York Mets admitted to distributing a variety of performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, to dozens of Major League Baseball players over a 10-year period beginning in 1995, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court Friday.
Kirk J. Radomski, a personal trainer who said he worked for the Mets from 1985-95, agreed to cooperate with the group led by former Sen. George Mitchell that Major League Baseball appointed to investigate drug use in baseball, as part of a plea deal accepted at the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California Friday by Judge Susan Illston.
Radomski, 37, admitted to supplying drugs to players throughout the league and laundering the proceeds of those sales. He pleaded guilty to one count of distributing anabolic steroids and one count of felony money laundering and faces up to 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
A confidential informant told the FBI that Radomski was a major drug source in professional baseball who took over after the steroid bust of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in 2003, according to a federal search warrant affadavit filed in connection with the case.
"This individual was a major dealer of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs whose clientele was focused almost exclusively on Major League Baseball players," assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parrella said after Radomski entered the plea. "He operated for approximately a decade."
Parrella said Radomski was a batboy, clubhouse assistant and equipment manager for the Mets.
The BALCO investigation resulted in five criminal convictions and more than a dozen doping suspensions of track and field athletes. It also led to a perjury investigation of San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, and indictments of track coach Trevor Graham and former cyclist Tammy Thomas.
As part of the plea deal, Radomski agreed to testify at any grand jury proceeding requested by the government and participate in undercover activities under the supervision of law enforcment officials.
The indictment represents a signficant blow to Major League Baseball, which has been trying to shake free of the drug scandal as Bonds approaches the all-time Major Leaugue home run record, which he is expected to eclipse this summer.
No Major League Baseball players were identified in the court filings associated with the case, but names and paragraphs of text were redacted from the federal search warrant affadavit filed in December 2005.
The affadavit listed 23 checks worth more than $30,000 that federal investigators alleged were deposited by individuals associated with Major League Baseball into Radomski's personal bank account between May 2003, and March 2005. The search warrant alleged that a confidential source received five orders of anabolic steroids from Radomski.
Human growth hormone, anabolic steroids, clomiphene, insulin growth factor and clenbuterol were seized from Radomski's New York home on Dec. 14, 2005.
Jeff Novitzky, an IRS special agent who has been the lead investigator on the BALCO case, wrote in the affadavit that he received a tip about Radomski from a confidential FBI source in Feburary 2005. The source placed the first of five drug orders from Radomski through an unidentifed Major League Baseball contact on March 19, 2005.
By Amy Shipley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 27, 2007; 4:13 PM
SAN FRANCISCO, April 27 -- A former employee of the New York Mets admitted to distributing a variety of performance-enhancing drugs, including anabolic steroids and human growth hormone, to dozens of Major League Baseball players over a 10-year period beginning in 1995, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court Friday.
Kirk J. Radomski, a personal trainer who said he worked for the Mets from 1985-95, agreed to cooperate with the group led by former Sen. George Mitchell that Major League Baseball appointed to investigate drug use in baseball, as part of a plea deal accepted at the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California Friday by Judge Susan Illston.
Radomski, 37, admitted to supplying drugs to players throughout the league and laundering the proceeds of those sales. He pleaded guilty to one count of distributing anabolic steroids and one count of felony money laundering and faces up to 25 years in prison and $500,000 in fines.
A confidential informant told the FBI that Radomski was a major drug source in professional baseball who took over after the steroid bust of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) in 2003, according to a federal search warrant affadavit filed in connection with the case.
"This individual was a major dealer of anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs whose clientele was focused almost exclusively on Major League Baseball players," assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parrella said after Radomski entered the plea. "He operated for approximately a decade."
Parrella said Radomski was a batboy, clubhouse assistant and equipment manager for the Mets.
The BALCO investigation resulted in five criminal convictions and more than a dozen doping suspensions of track and field athletes. It also led to a perjury investigation of San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, and indictments of track coach Trevor Graham and former cyclist Tammy Thomas.
As part of the plea deal, Radomski agreed to testify at any grand jury proceeding requested by the government and participate in undercover activities under the supervision of law enforcment officials.
The indictment represents a signficant blow to Major League Baseball, which has been trying to shake free of the drug scandal as Bonds approaches the all-time Major Leaugue home run record, which he is expected to eclipse this summer.
No Major League Baseball players were identified in the court filings associated with the case, but names and paragraphs of text were redacted from the federal search warrant affadavit filed in December 2005.
The affadavit listed 23 checks worth more than $30,000 that federal investigators alleged were deposited by individuals associated with Major League Baseball into Radomski's personal bank account between May 2003, and March 2005. The search warrant alleged that a confidential source received five orders of anabolic steroids from Radomski.
Human growth hormone, anabolic steroids, clomiphene, insulin growth factor and clenbuterol were seized from Radomski's New York home on Dec. 14, 2005.
Jeff Novitzky, an IRS special agent who has been the lead investigator on the BALCO case, wrote in the affadavit that he received a tip about Radomski from a confidential FBI source in Feburary 2005. The source placed the first of five drug orders from Radomski through an unidentifed Major League Baseball contact on March 19, 2005.
