推 mark1986321:Roidger Clemens! 03/07 23:26
03/06/2008 11:49 PM ET
Clemens investigators widen probe
By Barry M. Bloom / MLB.com
Internal Revenue Service investigators have gone to the Houston area to widen
their probe into whether Roger Clemens committed perjury last month in front
of a Congressional committee, regarding his use of performance-enhancing
drugs, the New York Times reported on its Web site Thursday.
The Times said that agents have contacted a former employee of a fitness
center that is just miles from Clemens' Houston home about whether the
seven-time Cy Young Award winner purchased anabolic steroids or human growth
hormone in the area.
Clemens insisted, both in a deposition and in public on Feb. 13 in front of
the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee that he has never used
performance-enhancing drugs, contradicting the testimony of Brian McNamee,
his former personal trainer. McNamee was quoted in the Mitchell Report as
saying that he injected Clemens with steroids and HGH 16 times from 1998 to
2002.
The leaders of that committee have since sent a letter to the Dept. of
Justice, asking that the top prosecuting arm in the U.S. to determine whether
Clemens committed perjury in his sworn testimony. The FBI has begun its own
investigation, but the IRS, with agent Jeff Novitzky leading the
investigation, is now probing whether Clemens also purchased the drugs in his
hometown.
Novitzky is the same agent who dug through bins of trash for months building
enough evidence against the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative to get a warrant
to raid those premises in 2003. The ensuing investigation ensnared a number
of baseball, football and track stars who all had blood work done by BALCO.
Barry Bonds, the former Giants star and MLB's all-time home run leader, is
currently fighting four charges of perjury and one of obstruction of justice,
involving his own testimony about performance-enhancing drugs made before a
federal grand jury seated in San Francisco nearly five years ago.
The Times reported that the anonymous former employee of Shaun Kelley Weight
Control was asked by the federal agent whether Clemens knew the center's
owner, Shaun K. Kelley.
Kelly, in several interviews with the reporters from the newspaper, said
Clemens was an acquaintance, but he wasn't involved in the sale of
performance-enhancing drugs.
But Kelly had advertised HGH on his Web site, the newspaper reported, and
that he had referred clients to Dr. Lisa C. Routh, a Houston psychiatrist,
"including at least one person who was then prescribed steroids." Routh, in
an interview, told The Times that she had never met Clemens and had never
prescribed any medications for him.
Under federal law, HGH can only be prescribed under the narrowest of
circumstances and cannot be used for performance enhancement or to recover
from athletic injuries.
Clemens was seen at Kelley's center, according to the former employee who
spoke to the agents, The Times reported. The newspaper also said that when
Clemens showed up at the center, he explained that he was a friend of Kelley
and waited while Kelley finished speaking to a client. Clemens then entered
Kelley's office and stayed for about 20 minutes.
Kelly told The Times that the meeting never took place.
"I have never seen Clemens in my store, ever," he said. "This is all totally
false."
Clemens gave testimony to the Committee in a Feb. 5 deposition and later at
the hotly contest public hearing that broke down along party lines with
Republicans chastising McNamee and Democrats taking whacks at Clemens.
The Dept. of Justice doesn't have to act on a Congressional referral and can
open a grand jury on its own to review the existing evidence, although it has
yet to determine whether it will do so. McNamee has a proffer agreement with
federal prosecutors that states that he can be found criminally culpable of
making false statements if he lied under oath.
The committee didn't ask the Dept. of Justice to investigate McNamee.
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