The former world-record holder in the 100-meter sprint pleaded for leniency from Judge Kenneth Karas, citing in part his recent arrest on charges of conspiring to distribute heroin. He said he has fallen from the heights he once reached."I have had everything I ever wanted in life," he said leaning his slight but no longer athletic frame against the defense table. "The gold medal, all those people cheering, that was part of another world."His world now is behind bars.
"I've been in rooms with murderers, pedophiles," he said. "In jail my status is gone."Montgomery and Jones share several things: They have a child together, they were Olympic champions, they were banned from track and field competition after being tied to illegal steroid use - and now they both will be inmates in the federal penitentiary system. Jones is scheduled to be released Sept. 5 from a federal prison in Texas after completing a six-month sentence for lying to federal investigators about her steroid use and her role in the check-fraud scheme.Montgomery, of Virginia Beach, Va., set his world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100 meters in September 2002. Two years earlier, he won a gold medal at the Sydney Olympic Games as part of the 400-meter relay team. He was stripped of his world record in 2005 when the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency determined he used illegal steroids. He was connected to steroids through BALCO, the San Francisco-based laboratory at the center of a wide-ranging federal investigation into the use of illegal performance-enhancing drugs by athletes. He was banned from track and field in 2005.
Jones admitted her steroid use during her guilty plea in October in federal court in White Plains. The case was moved from Manhattan when Karas transferred to Westchester last summer.
Montgomery pleaded guilty last year to bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Federal prosecutors said he conspired with at least four other people in the scheme, including track coach Steven Riddick and sports agent Charles Wells. Prosecutors said Montgomery caused three bogus checks totaling $1.2 million to be deposited into various bank accounts, including one check for $200,000 into a joint business account he shared with Jones.Yesterday, Montgomery said his participation in the scheme came in part because as a track star he was accustomed to following the instructions of his coaches.
But Karas rejected that excuse, as well as pleas for leniency by Montgomery's lawyer, Timothy Heaphy, and his father, Eddie Montgomery.
"Being a track star does not somehow disable someone from saying no when approached to take part in a crime," the judge said. "Someone saying you should commit bank fraud, that's not the same as someone saying you should eat Wheaties." federal judge denied bond for former track star Tim Montgomery on federal heroin distribution charges. Montgomery appeared Tuesday in U.S. District Court before Magistrate Judge F. Bradford Stillman. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and requested a jury trial, which the judge set for July 9. The former 100-meter world-record holder was arrested last week on a sealed indictment accusing him of dealing more than 100 grams of heroin in Virginia.
stillman said Montgomery is a flight risk and a danger to the community, noting he is accused of dealing heroin in Virginia four times to a government informant after he pleaded guilty in a New York-based check-kiting conspiracy. He is to be sentenced May 16 in that case.The 33-year-old Montgomery pleaded guilty in the New York case, admitting he helped his former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, and others cash $1.7 million in stolen and counterfeit checks. He faces up to 46 months in prison.
Eric Hurt, an assistant U.S. attorney, called the heroin case straightforward.
Montgomery met four times with a confidential informant from August to April, dealing a total of 111 grams of heroin for $8,450, Hurt told the judge.
Authorities recorded the meetings on audiotape and, in two cases, also on videotape. Drug Enforcement Administration agents also observed the transactions, Hurt said.
Montgomery's defense attorney James O. Broccoletti declined to comment after the hearing, as did members of Montgomery's family, who were in court.
Riddick is serving a five-year prison term. Montgomery's former companion, Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, is serving a six-month prison term for lying to investigators about the check-fraud scam and using steroids.
Montgomery won a gold medal in the 400 relay at the 2000 Olympics and a silver medal in the 400 relay at the 1996 Olympics.
Montgomery retired in December 2005 after he was banned from track for two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for doping linked to the investigation of BALCO, the lab at the center of a steroid scandal in sports. He never tested positive for drugs and has said he never knowingly took any banned substances.
All performances after March 31, 2001, were wiped from the books, including his world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100 meters in September 2002.
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