WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- Olympic sprinter Marion Jones was sentenced today to six months in prison and two years of community service for lying about steroids use and her involvement in a check-fraud scheme, completing a fall from grace as stunning as her ascent as one of the world's most celebrated athletes.
U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas said that he considered probation or home detention for Jones, who has two young children and has been publicly repentant. Jones voluntarily gave up her five Olympic medals in December after confessing in court in October to using banned drugs.
But the judge decided that her sentence must send a message.
"There is a very strong argument that incarceration may make others think twice and show that no one is above the legal obligation to tell the truth," Karas said.
Karas asked lawyers last week if he could go beyond the recommended six-month sentence negotiated in a plea deal because the charges stemmed from two separate federal investigations, but both sides advised him against it. The judge said that he had doubts that Jones had been fully forthcoming about the extent of her drug use, especially whether she knew that the substance her trainer told her was flaxseed oil was in fact a banned performance-enhancing drug.
"Its very difficult to believe that a top-notch athlete would not be keenly aware and very careful about what he or she put into one's body," he said.
But instead of a longer sentence, Karas decided to have Jones use her strong personality and high profile to get the message out to children that it is wrong to cheat and wrong to lie about cheating. After her release, she must do 400 hours of community service each year for two years.
Addressing the court before the sentencing, Jones stood with her head bowed and tears tracking her face, a posture that darkly echoed her stance on the Olympic dais in the 2000 Sydney Games, where she won three gold medals and two bronzes.
"I absolutely realize the gravity of the offenses I've committed, and I am deeply sorry," she said. She began to cry as she pleaded with the judge to not separate her from her 4-year-old son and 7-month-old baby, whom she is still nursing.
Jones, who is now married to sprinter Obadele Thompson and goes by the name Jones-Thompson, embraced her husband after the sentencing, weeping. They held hands as she walked out of the courtroom, her eyes still glistening.
"As everyone can imagine, I'm very disappointed today," Jones told reporters outside the courthouse in the rain. "But as I stood in front of all of you for years in victory, I stand in front of you today. I stand for what is right.
"I respect the judge's order, and I truly hope that people will learn from my mistakes."
Her lawyers requested that she serve her sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp for women in Bryan, Texas, so she could be near her family in Austin. Karas ordered her to begin serving her time before March 11.
Jones was convicted not for drug use but for lying about it to federal investigators, as well as her false denial of involvement in a check fraud scheme orchestrated by her former husband, Tim Montgomery. Montgomery and several others have been convicted in that scam.
She fiercely denied any drug use until a sobbing confession in court last October. She has never failed a drug test, which shows the sophistication of the dopers and the inadequacy of detection tests to distinguish which performances were artificially boosted.
But Jones is the first athlete to be convicted in connection with a lab that supplied athletes and trainers with illegal drug cocktails. A 2003 federal raid on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in Northern California found records, doping calendars and other documents linking prohibited steroids to Jones and other athletes, including home-run king Barry Bonds.
BALCO founder Victor Conte testified that he saw Jones inject tetrahydrogestrinone -- a drug he called the clear -- and also supplied her with the cream, insulin, human growth hormone, and erythropoietin, a blood-doping drug that stimulates growth of red blood cells. Conte spent four months in prison.
"I feel very sad for Marion and her family," Conte said in a statement today. "There is a saying in prison that inmates don't do the time, their families do. Looking into a family member's eyes and seeing the hurt you have caused is the most painful consequence.
"Hopefully, she will be able to serve as an example and help others to make good decisions."
LA Times..
U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Karas said that he considered probation or home detention for Jones, who has two young children and has been publicly repentant. Jones voluntarily gave up her five Olympic medals in December after confessing in court in October to using banned drugs.
But the judge decided that her sentence must send a message.
"There is a very strong argument that incarceration may make others think twice and show that no one is above the legal obligation to tell the truth," Karas said.
Karas asked lawyers last week if he could go beyond the recommended six-month sentence negotiated in a plea deal because the charges stemmed from two separate federal investigations, but both sides advised him against it. The judge said that he had doubts that Jones had been fully forthcoming about the extent of her drug use, especially whether she knew that the substance her trainer told her was flaxseed oil was in fact a banned performance-enhancing drug.
"Its very difficult to believe that a top-notch athlete would not be keenly aware and very careful about what he or she put into one's body," he said.
But instead of a longer sentence, Karas decided to have Jones use her strong personality and high profile to get the message out to children that it is wrong to cheat and wrong to lie about cheating. After her release, she must do 400 hours of community service each year for two years.
Addressing the court before the sentencing, Jones stood with her head bowed and tears tracking her face, a posture that darkly echoed her stance on the Olympic dais in the 2000 Sydney Games, where she won three gold medals and two bronzes.
"I absolutely realize the gravity of the offenses I've committed, and I am deeply sorry," she said. She began to cry as she pleaded with the judge to not separate her from her 4-year-old son and 7-month-old baby, whom she is still nursing.
Jones, who is now married to sprinter Obadele Thompson and goes by the name Jones-Thompson, embraced her husband after the sentencing, weeping. They held hands as she walked out of the courtroom, her eyes still glistening.
"As everyone can imagine, I'm very disappointed today," Jones told reporters outside the courthouse in the rain. "But as I stood in front of all of you for years in victory, I stand in front of you today. I stand for what is right.
"I respect the judge's order, and I truly hope that people will learn from my mistakes."
Her lawyers requested that she serve her sentence at a minimum-security federal prison camp for women in Bryan, Texas, so she could be near her family in Austin. Karas ordered her to begin serving her time before March 11.
Jones was convicted not for drug use but for lying about it to federal investigators, as well as her false denial of involvement in a check fraud scheme orchestrated by her former husband, Tim Montgomery. Montgomery and several others have been convicted in that scam.
She fiercely denied any drug use until a sobbing confession in court last October. She has never failed a drug test, which shows the sophistication of the dopers and the inadequacy of detection tests to distinguish which performances were artificially boosted.
But Jones is the first athlete to be convicted in connection with a lab that supplied athletes and trainers with illegal drug cocktails. A 2003 federal raid on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative in Northern California found records, doping calendars and other documents linking prohibited steroids to Jones and other athletes, including home-run king Barry Bonds.
BALCO founder Victor Conte testified that he saw Jones inject tetrahydrogestrinone -- a drug he called the clear -- and also supplied her with the cream, insulin, human growth hormone, and erythropoietin, a blood-doping drug that stimulates growth of red blood cells. Conte spent four months in prison.
"I feel very sad for Marion and her family," Conte said in a statement today. "There is a saying in prison that inmates don't do the time, their families do. Looking into a family member's eyes and seeing the hurt you have caused is the most painful consequence.
"Hopefully, she will be able to serve as an example and help others to make good decisions."
LA Times..
