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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for lying about using steroids and a check-fraud scam, despite beseeching the judge that she not be separated from her two young children “even for a short period of time.”
“I ask you to be as merciful as a human being can be,” said Jones, who cried on her husband’s shoulder after she was sentenced.
The disgraced former Olympic champion was ordered to surrender March 11 to begin her term.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas said he gave her the maximum under the plea deal to send a message to athletes who have abused drugs and overlooked the values of “hard work, dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship.”
“Athletes in society have an elevated status, they entertain, they inspire, and perhaps, most important, they serve as role models,” Karas said.
Later Friday, the judge sentenced Jones’ former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, to 5 years and 3 months in prison for his role in the check-fraud scam, less than what the sentencing guidelines recommended. Riddick also was given three years’ probation and must pay back $375,000.
The 31-year-old Jones also was given two years’ probation and supervised release, during which she will be required to perform 800 hours of community service.
“As everyone can imagine, I’m very disappointed today,” Jones told reporters outside court. “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.”
After her guilty pleas last October, Jones made an apologetic and teary-eyed statement outside court, saying, “It’s with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust.”
“I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me,” she added. “I have let (my family) down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. … I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.”
Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative founder Victor Conte, who served four months in prison after pleading guilty to operating a steroids distribution ring, said Friday he felt sad for Jones and her family.
“Marion did make some very poor choices, and she does deserve serious consequences. I certainly don’t condone her repeated lies,” Conte said in a statement. “There is no doubt in my mind that she has learned gigantic lessons. Hopefully, she will be able to serve as an example and help others to make good decisions.”
Jones returned her Olympic medals — golds in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay and bronzes in the long jump and 400-meter relay — even before the International Olympic Committee ordered her to do so and wiped her results from the books.
She was among the many athletes who testified in 2003 before a grand jury investigating BALCO. And on the day she pleaded guilty, prosecutors said a 2003 search warrant at BALCO uncovered ledgers, purchases, doping calendars, and various blood-test results connected to Jones and former coach Trevor Graham.
She took EPO, human growth hormone and THG using drops and injections, according to the court documents that show use in 2000 and 2001.
“Today’s sentencing is illustrative of just how far-reaching and serious the consequences of cheating can be,” U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Jim Scherr said in a statement. “The fact that an athlete with so much talent and promise, who so many people looked up to, made the decision to cheat is a terrible disappointment.”
Times are changing just enough to know that high profile athletes are getting treated like normal people. That the court systems are no longer afraid to sentence an athlete to prison.
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