Detective linked to steroid shipment, By: Robert Gavin
Court memo says Albany cop got mail order that included needles, 3 drugs
June 23, 2007
ALBANY -- A veteran city narcotics detective received a mail order for hundreds of syringes and three different types of steroids ranging from testosterone to human growth hormone, court papers revealed Friday.
"I got one package, but it was for legitimate medical reasons," Detective Richard Gould told a state Health Department investigator, according to a memo prosecutors filed in Albany County Court.
Gould, 42, of Albany, received 300 syringes as well as somatropin, stanozolol and testosterone, says the memo, which included a copy of a Dec. 15, 2005, prescription document from Cellular Nucleonic Advantage, a so-called wellness clinic outside Houston.
The company's operators shut down their business and have since pleaded guilty to felony charges.
According to the prosectors' memo, Gould received three shipments from Signature Compounding Pharmacy between December 2005 and last August.
"At least one of the order forms for one of these packages indicated that it contained steroids and human growth hormone," the memo said.
Signature was raided in February as part of the Albany County district attorney's office national steroid investigation.
Stanozolol, a synthetic anabolic steroid, can be taken orally or injected to treat anemia and tissue swelling, while testosterone can be used for a low sex drive, health and law enforcement officials have said. Somatropin is a form of human growth hormone, which can be injected to increase height growth in youths and can be used as an anti-aging miracle drug.
All three are said to increase muscle mass.
Cheryl Coleman, the detective's lawyer, was in court Friday and could not be reached. She has acknowledged Gould received the drugs for home therapy, but said her client has done nothing wrong.
Gould, who is not charged with any crime, was placed on desk duty last week by Police Chief James W. Tuffey.
Prosecutors filed the memo before County Judge Thomas Breslin made a decision in a drug case in which Gould was the lead investigator. He ruled early Friday that prosecutors did not wait too long before informing defense lawyers about Gould's involvement in the nationwide steroids case.
"They have fulfilled their (obligation) to the letter of the law," Breslin said.
He said the prosecutors were "approaching the line" when they disclosed the officer's involvement June 15. He also said he did not believe they took the "highest ethical approach," but ruled in their favor.
"We have followed the letter of the law -- that's our ethical obligation," said Christopher Horn, special counsel to District Attorney David Soares.
Prosecutors said they did not plan to use Gould as a witness in a pre-trial hearing for the case. Were he to testify at trial, they said, they would have not been required to disclose his steroid link until after a jury was sworn in.
Defense lawyer Tiffinay Rutnik has argued the information should have been disclosed immediately. She said Gould was the lead investigator when her client, Larry Faulkner, and a co-defendant, Kenneth Guthrie, were arrested on crack cocaine charges last fall. The judge's decision "is what it is," she said.
In the meantime, prosecutors said they have created a "taint team" to assess dozens of cases involving the narcotics officer, who was placed on desk duty last Friday. The department is performing an ongoing internal investigation.
