Pharmacies' indictments tossed after case mishandled
By A.J. Perez, USA TODAY
A New York state judge dismissed indictments Thursday against five people at the center of a multi-state investigation into the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs that ensnared several professional athletes.
Albany County Judge Stephen Herrick rapped county prosecutors for their handling of "the complex and unwieldy case" against Orlando-based Signature Pharmacy.
Herrick wrote that prosecutors gave such incomplete information and insufficient instructions to grand jurors that they "have impaired the integrity of the grand jury proceedings to such a degree that a dismissal is warranted."
Herrick added that the charges — presented to two different grand juries a total of four times — were not well defined. The defendants faced a combined 31 felony and two misdemeanor counts.
The ruling prevents Albany County District Attorney David Soares from seeking new charges against the husband-wife owners of Signature, Stan and Naomi Loomis, pharmacist Michael Loomis and associates Kirk Calvert and Anthony Palladino.
"The game's over," says Amy Tingley, the lawyer for Signature Pharmacy. "My clients are relieved that they can put this behind them and move on with their lives. After 20 months, (prosecutors) failed to put up a case that could even proceed to trial. We were always confident that we could prevail once it got to a jury, but the judge found there weren't even grounds to continue the case."
Since January 2007, Soares' office has indicted 22 people linked to nine pharmacies or so-called wellness centers, most based in Florida. Seventeen have pleaded guilty, including Anthony Forgione, whose plea deal on three felony counts of distributing a controlled substance was accepted Thursday. Charges against two defendants, Steven and Karen Lampert of Nanuet, N.Y., were dropped in November 2007.
Thursday's decision has no effect on those who have taken pleas.
"We have received the decision issued by Judge Herrick this morning regarding the five Signature defendants," Soares said in a statement. "We do not agree and are appealing this decision."
Rodney Harrison, a safety for the NFL's New England Patriots, was suspended by the league for four games last season for violating its policy on banned substances. He purchased human growth hormone (HGH) from a wellness center in Florida connected to the investigation, Chris Baynes, an Albany County assistant district attorney told The Boston Globe last year.
Dallas Cowboys assistant coach Wade Wilson was suspended for five games and fined $100,000 by the NFL after it learned through the investigation that Wilson, while a member of the Chicago Bears' staff, had purchased a banned substance from a company that later was targeted.
Soares and members of his office also met with investigators for former Sen. George Mitchell, who was tapped by Major League Baseball to investigate performance-enhancing drug use in that sport.
Last December's Mitchell Report alleged St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel, Cleveland Indians pitcher Paul Byrd and former major leaguers Jay Gibbons and Jason Grimsley received shipments of HGH from Signature. The report also said New York Mets reliever Scott Schoeneweis and St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus received shipments of steroids.
None of the players were punished by Major League Baseball.
Tingley says Soares, who is running for another four-year term this November, has been "going after what's going to get the most publicity."
Soares said in his statement Thursday his office, with cooperation from authorities in New York and Florida, has "been able to disrupt a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise trafficking illegal steroids to thousands of people across the country."
