Guilty Plea Widens Baseball’s Steroids Scandal
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A former Mets clubhouse assistant pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in San Francisco to distributing performance-enhancing drugs to dozens of former and current Major League Baseball players for a 10-year period, the latest blow to a sport that has been battered by the issue of steroid use. Kirk Radomski, 37, who worked as a bat boy, equipment manager and clubhouse assistant for the Mets from 1985-95, admitted to selling banned drugs, including anabolic steroids, amphetamines and human growth hormone, from 1995 through 2005, according to a plea agreement filed in the United States District Court in the Northern District of California. Mr. Radomski, who listed himself as a personal trainer on recent tax returns, also pleaded guilty to laundering the money from the drug transactions. The two felony charges carry sentences of up to 25 years in prison and a maximum of $500,000 in fines. None of his clients were named in the plea agreement, and players’ names were redacted from a search warrant affidavit dated Dec. 13, 2005, which was used for a federal raid on Mr. Radomski’s Long Island home. Mr. Radomski has been working with federal steroids investigators since that raid, according to Matt Parrella, an assistant United States attorney. Assisting those investigations typically includes providing background information, going undercover, recording telephone conversations and setting up transactions that are monitored by authorities. More : nytimes.com |