Oct 5, 2007

The three-time Olympic gold medalist is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y., on Friday to plead guilty to charges in connection with steroid use, a federal law enforcement source told The Associated Press.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, and would not provide specific details about the plea.

Jones also sent family and close friends a letter in which she said she used steroids before the Sydney Games, The Washington Post reported Thursday. The Post was the first to report that Jones would come clean on doping.

"I want to apologize for all of this," the Post reported Jones saying in her letter, quoting a person who received a copy and read it to the paper. "I am sorry for disappointing you all in so many ways."

Jones said in her letter that she faced up to six months in jail and would be sentenced in three months, according to the newspaper.

The admission also could cost Jones the five medals she won in Sydney, where she was the most celebrated female athlete of the games. She didn't win the five golds she wanted, but she came away with three and two bronzes, and her bright smile and charming personality made her a star.

In December 2004, the International Olympic Committee opened an investigation into doping allegations against Jones.

"Progress to date has been slow due the difficulty of gathering findings," IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau said. "The information that Marion Jones might provide later on today may prove to be key in moving this case forward."

Under statute of limitations rules, the IOC and other sports bodies can go back eight years to strip medals and nullify results. In Jones' case, that would include the 2000 Olympics, where she won gold in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay and bronze in the long jump and 400-meter relay.

In addition to any jail term, Jones could face a long competition ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

The International Association of Athletics Federations said it was waiting for official notification from USADA setting out the details of Jones' reported admission.

If she admits to having been on drugs during a specfic period, the IAAF could strip Jones of all her medals and results from the world championships and other events from that time. She won three gold medals, a silver and a bronze at the 1999 and 2001 worlds.

"Our rules are clear if she confesses," IAAF spokesman Nick Davies said.

No one answered the door at Jones' home in Austin, Texas, Thursday evening, and a message left by the AP for a phone number registered to her husband, Obadele Thompson, was not immediately returned.

The triple gold medalist in Sydney said she took "the clear" for two years, beginning in 1999, and that she got it from former coach Trevor Graham, who told her it was flaxseed oil, the newspaper reported.

"The clear" is a performance-enhancing drug linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports. Home run king Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi and Detroit Tigers outfielder Gary Sheffield all have been linked to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative and were among more than two dozen athletes who testified before a federal grand jury in 2003.

Bonds denied ever knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs, saying he believed a clear substance and a cream, given to him by his trainer, were flaxseed oil and an arthritis balm. 

Until now, Jones had denied doping, even suing BALCO founder Victor Conte in 2004 for $25 million. Conte repeatedly accused Jones of using performance-enhancing drugs and said he watched her inject herself. 

"It cost me a lot of money to defend myself," Conte said Thursday. "But I told the truth then, and I'm telling it now." 

In her letter, Jones said she didn't realize she'd used performance-enhancing drugs until she stopped training with Graham at the end of 2002. She said she lied when federal agents questioned her in 2003, panicking when they presented her with a sample of "the clear," which she recognized as the substance Graham had given her. 

"It's funky, because you wanted to believe she was clean," said Jon Drummond, a gold medalist in the 400 relay in Sydney. "It's like that old saying, 'Cheaters never win.' So no matter how glorious or glamorous things look, you'll get caught and pay a price for it. 

"It caught me by total surprise," he added. "It's a shock. I thought it was a closed case. It doesn't help track and field at all, except maybe by letting the world know, people always get to the bottom of things. We shouldn't be afraid of the truth, but it's sad it came to this." 

Jones' career has been tarnished the last several years by doping allegations against her. In August 2006, a urine sample tested positive for EPO, but Jones was cleared when a backup sample tested negative. 

She also was among the athletes who testified before a BALCO grand jury in 2003. Her former boyfriend, Tim Montgomery, also testified, and was given a two-year ban for doping in late 2005. Michelle Collins and Justin Gatlin, who also trained with Graham, were banned for doping violations, too. 

Graham has a Nov. 26 trial date after being indicted in the BALCO case last November on three counts of lying to federal agents. Graham, who has pleaded not guilty, helped launch the government's steroid probe in 2003 when he mailed a vial of "the clear" — previously undetectable — to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. 

A woman who answered the phone at Graham's home in Raleigh, N.C., declined to identify herself, but said Graham was not home before refusing to answer any other questions. There was no answer at the door of Graham's north Raleigh home. 

USA Track & Field was not aware of Jones' letter nor any pending legal action, CEO Craig Masback said. 

"Anything that exposes the truth about drug use in sport is good for ensuring the integrity of sport," Masback said. "Any use of performance-enhancing substances is a tragedy for the athlete, their teammates, friends, family and the sport." 

Darryl Seibel, spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, declined comment on whether Jones would lose her medals until legal proceedings are completed. 

"If these reports are true," Seibel said, "it is an admission of responsibility from an athlete who owed her sport and the Olympic movement much better." 

Seibel added that "our position on doping is unequivocal. Doping is cheating, and under no circumstance will it be tolerated. If an athlete cheats, they deserve to pay the price for their action." 

The Washington Post also reported that, in her letter, Jones said she lied about a $25,000 check given to her by Montgomery, who pleaded guilty in New York in April as part of a criminal scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged checks. He has yet to be sentenced. 

Wells, Jones' longtime agent, and Olympian Steve Riddick, another of Jones' former coaches, also were convicted in the scam. 

Bank records indicated Jones had received a $25,000 check from one of the alleged conspirators — Nathaniel Alexander who shared office space with Riddick and also was convicted. The check never cleared, according to records, and Jones was never charged. 

"Once again, I panicked," the Post reported, quoting Jones' letter. "I did not want my name associated with this mess. I wanted to stay as far away as possible."

[ Open Letter to Marion Jones ]

_____________________________

Marion Jones - Former Olympic Champion Sentenced to Six Months in Prison

January 12, 2008

Former Olympic champion Marion Jones was sentenced by a federal judge to six months in prison yesterday for lying to investigators about her use of steroids and involvement in a check-fraud scheme, completing one of the most spectacular falls from grace of any athlete in any sport. 

Jones, who won five medals at the 2000 Summer Games and was heralded as the world's greatest female athlete, received the maximum sentence recommended by prosecutors from U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas, who said he wanted to send a message to athletes who abuse performance-enhancing drugs. 

Jones, 32, also was sentenced during the hearing in White Plains, N.Y., to two years of probation and 800 hours of community service with children. "As everyone can imagine, I'm very disappointed today," Jones told reporters outside the court. "But as I stood in front of all of you for years in victory, I stand in front of you today. I stand for what is right. 

"I respect the judge's order, and I truly hope that people will learn from my mistakes," Jones added, according to the Associated Press. 

Karas ordered Jones to report to prison March 11. Her lawyers requested she serve her sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp for women in Bryan, Tex., 95 miles northwest of Houston. 

Jones pleaded with the judge, saying she should not be away from her two young sons -- ages 7 months and 4 years -- even for a short period of time and asking that he "be as merciful as a human being can be," the AP reported. When her sentence was announced, she cried on the shoulder of her husband, former Barbados Olympian Obadele Thompson. 

At the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Jones catapulted to international fame when she won three gold medals and two bronzes, displaying extraordinary athletic ability and ease and charm in front of cameras. 

But after years of denying that she used performance-enhancing drug use, Jones admitted as part of a plea agreement in October that she had begun taking a steroid now known as "the clear" just before those Olympics and continued using it into 2001. 

Though she claimed in her plea deal and in a letter to relatives that she had been tricked into using the steroid by her former coach, Trevor Graham, prosecutors alleged in a sentencing memorandum that she took a variety of drugs -- steroids, human growth hormone and erythropoietin (EPO) -- and did so knowingly and with the intention of furthering her career. 

Karas rejected Jones's appeal for leniency, saying he was "troubled" by Jones's claims that her steroid use was unwitting. 

"That's a very difficult thing to believe that a top-notch athlete, knowing that a razor-thin margin makes the difference, would not be keenly aware and very careful about what he or she put in her body, and the effects," Karas told Jones during yesterday's hearing, according to Bloomberg News. 

Though Jones never tested positive, despite being subjected to frequent drug tests, her name was found on lab work and doping calendars at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco) during a 2003 raid on the nutrition company. That raid produced evidence that has led to more than a dozen suspensions of track and field athletes and six criminal convictions. 

Jones, however, is the first athlete connected to the Balco case to receive prison time. Her sentence exceeds those given to any of the others who were convicted, including Balco founder Victor Conte and chemist Patrick Arnold, who designed the steroids that became known as the clear. 

Baseball slugger Barry Bonds also has been charged with lying to investigators in connection with the Balco probe, as has cyclist Tammy Thomas.

[ Open Letter to Marion Jones ]

_____________________________

Marion Jones - Disgraced sprinter starts prison term

03/07/08

Fort Worth, TX (Sports Network) - Disgraced Olympic track and field star Marion Jones began her six-month prison sentence on Friday by reporting to federal prison in Fort Worth.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Jones is expected to be housed at the minimum security facility of the Federal Medical Centre-Carswell. There, Jones could work in either the kitchen, perform ground maintenance or work in the recreation department, according to the newspaper.

It was in January when Jones was sentenced to six months in prison for lying to federal prosecutors. Jones pleaded guilty to two charges last October. The second charge was in connection with her knowledge of a check-fraud scam involving her ex-boyfriend, former sprinter Tim Montgomery.

Jones, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, was sentenced to six months for lying about her steroid use, and two months for the check-fraud case. Jones has since returned all five of the medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Summer Games.

[ Open Letter to Marion Jones ]