Written by:

KEVIN GRAHAM, Times Staff Writer

September 20, 2007

A Wesley Chapel man will spend 18 months in federal prison for illegally injecting a 13-year-old boy with steroids, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

John Todd Miller, 39, who worked at the Pasco Medical Clinic and Physicians Wellness Institute, told U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. that he never intended to harm the boy.

"This was simply a bad choice on my part," Miller, who pleaded guilty, said before Moody sentenced him.

Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas G. Wilson denied bond for the 13-year-old's father, James Gahan, 41, formerly of Lady Lake. Gahan has pleaded guilty to providing steroids to his son, an in-line roller skater who was training for a competition in China.

Court documents say Miller lied about being a doctor and never had a license to inject anyone with steroids.