|
|
|
|
|
|
Getting Caught With Steroids /
All Categories
2 plead guilty in steroids case
2 plead guilty in steroids case, By: Brendan Lyons
April 20, 2007
ALBANY - A former semi-pro football player from Houston and his girlfriend both pleaded guilty to felony charges this morning in connection with a multi-state steroids distribution network that authorities say centered around an Orlando pharmacy.
Eugene Bolton, 40, and Monday Miller, 38, both described in court how they took telephone orders for prescription drugs from customers who had never been examined by doctors. The prescriptions, which they filled out, were then faxed to physicians who would sign them and send them back without ever examining the "patients."
Most of the customers contacted Bolton's company, Cellular Nucleonic Advantage, after responding to advertisements the company placed in muscle and automobile magazines. The doctors, according to Bolton and Miller, never examined the people who ordered the drugs.
The dosage amounts on the prescriptions would being faxed to the doctors, who were paid cash for each one they signed, the couple said.
"As far as I recall, it was 50 (dollars) a signature," Bolton told Judge Thomas A. Breslin.
Earlier this year, after Bolton already had been indicted on felony charges in Albany, he went to Orlando to meet with Kirk Calvert, the business manager for Signature Compounding Pharmacy, and Dr. Claire Godfrey, a well-known Florida obstetrician. Calvert and Godfrey both have pleaded not guilty to related felony charges.
The pharmacists and operators of Signature, Stan and Naomi Loomis and Stan Loomis's brother, Mike, also have been indicted on felony drug distribution charges.
While in Orlando, Bolton said, he went to a restaurant with Calvert and Godfrey and allegedly set up a deal for Godfrey to sign prescriptions funneled to Signature from Bolton's so-called "wellness center" in Houston.
"It was on a handshake," Bolton said, adding they did not sign any formal business agreements.
During the meeting, Bolton said he handed Godfrey $1,750 in cash for prescriptions she'd already signed. He also gave her another $200 cash as an advance for four new prescriptions that hadn't yet been filled, authorities said.
The meeting lasted more than an hour and law enforcement agents were watching and listening, having already enlisted Bolton's cooperation. They also provided the cash used in the transactions, Bolton told the judge.
The Houston business is one of several self-titled "anti-aging" or "wellness" clinics whose operators are facing criminal charges. Three other clinics are in Florida and one was located in Rockland County.
Bolton and Miller declined comment as they left court. They each pleaded guilty to a felony drug charge but have agreed to cooperate with authorities, including testifying at trials, in exchange for deals that would keep them out of prison. Bolton faces up to six months in jail and Miller would face five years' probation under the deals.
Outside court, Assistant District Attorney Christopher Baynes and District Attorney David Soares both described this morning's guilty pleas as an integral part of their ongoing prosecution. They said Signature pharmacy's operators are the primary targets in the case.
"You can see how this entire system does not work unless you have physicians willing to engage in this practice," Soares said.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
