Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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Spectacular trial possible for Jamaican-born Graham
11-04-2006

SAN FRANCISCO, USA (AFP): Embattled athletics coach, Jamaican-born Trevor Graham,has denied any wrongdoing after being charged with lying to federal investigators and his lawyer raised the notion of a potential blockbluster trial in the case.

A federal grand jury indicted the mentor of such stars as Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones and Justin Gatlin for making false statements in connection with a probe he helped launch, the BALCO steroid distribution scandal.

The indictment links Graham to banned performance-enhancing substances and makes him the sixth person, and biggest sporting name, charged in connection with the doping scandal that rocked athletics over the past three years.

"Trevor's response is that he is not guilty and he looks forward to clearing his name at trial," Joseph Zeszotarski, Graham's attorney, said in a statement to the Washington Post.

"Given the money, reputation and freedom lost by many as a result of Trevor's integrity in turning in the sample, it is not at all surprising that people are now trying to say otherwise in an effort to harm Trevor."

Graham faces up to 15 years in prison and fines totaling 750,000 dollars if convicted on all three counts.

"As Trevor has said all along, he has not been involved in any way in the distribution of illicit substances," Zeszotarski told the San Jose Mercury News.

Graham, set for arraignment November 16, sparked the inqiury in 2003 by anonymously sending the US Anti-Doping Agency a syringe with traces of a previously undetectable steroid, THG, known as "the clear" and tied to BALCO.

Critics claim Graham turned in the sample because he was unhappy his athletes were losing to those using THG.

BALCO founder Victor Conte and vice president James Valente, athletics coach Remy Korchemny, trainer Greg Anderson - who worked with baseball star Barry Bonds - and chemist Patrick Arnold have been convicted in the case.

All five made deals with prosecutors to prevent the the cases from going to trial.

If Graham does not do the same, there is the prospect of a spectacular trial in which many of his former athletes could be called to testify.

That includes Jones, who has denied accusations of cheating and was cleared of a potential doping positive after a reported "A"-sample positive when her "B" sample was negative.

Montgomery, the former 100m world record-holder, and Gatlin, the 100m world record co-holder who is fighting a positive test for artificial testosterone from last April, are also among those who have worked with Graham to hit doping controversy.

"We are confident that when all of the evidence is revealed, not just selected snippets leaked to the press, it will show the truth and the truth is that Trevor has not made any false statements to the government," Zeszotarski said.

Graham made an immunity deal with investigators, according to agents, but that did not covery false statements made in the interview.

Graham, himself a 1988 Olympian for Jamaica, has coached 20 Olympic runners and his Sprint Capitol USA program based in Raleigh, North Carolina, boasts of producing 19 Olympic medals, 13 of them gold.

Linking Graham to systematic dope cheating would undermine the integrity of athletics ever more than it already has suffered and heap disgrace upon many of the most heralded feats of the past decade.

"It's your sport. It does affect you. It's disheartening. We're already hardly watched. They are just sucking the life out of us," reigning world 100m champion Lauryn Williams told the San Jose Mercury News.

"If you're cleaning up the sport it's not so frustrating. That is the one thing keeping us clean athletes going. At some point this has to go away."

Graham was banished from all US Olympic Committee training facilities in August because of the high number of drug cases in which his athletes have become involved, as many as 14 in the past two years.

The World Anti-Doping Agency and world governing body IAAF could impose a ban upon the coach.

"No one has a license to break sports rules or federal laws just because they turn in a drug dealer to the authorities," USADA general counsel Travis Tygart told the Chicago Tribune on Thursday.

"We know athletes rarely dope on their own."

The indictment claims that on June 8, 2004, two Internal Revenue Service criminal investigation special agents interviewed Graham at his attorney's office in Raleigh.

Graham is charged with lying by saying he never set up any of his athletes with illegal performance-enhancing drugs, claiming that in fact Graham obtained these drugs and provided them to his athletes.

The indictment says Graham also referred athletes to the source of his banned steroids, described only as "Source A", and that he lied by saying he had not met the person nor spoken to them since 1997.

Several reports have said that source is believed to be Angel Guillermo Heredia, a former shot putter and nutritionist from Laredo, Texas.

The New York Times reported Heredia has admitted providing steroids, human growth hormone and EPO under guidance from Graham from 1996 through 2000.

The Washington Post reported a public record search showed that Heredia and Randall Evans, an assistant to Graham, shared an address in Laredo in 1999.