Female Bodybuilder Framed - MD Legal Muscle

Q: How common are undercover informants in steroid cases?

A:Informants (aka rats or snitches) have been a longtime weapon in the war against narcotics, and lately used in steroid cases, too. An informant is typically a person who gets busted and, in return for a better deal, agrees to help bust others, such as by making “controlled buys” wearing hidden recording devices. These transactions must be closely monitored to ensure the integrity of the evidence. The axiom among drug police is, “Never trust an informant.” If agents do a shoddy job of supervising, the snitch can fool them (deceitfulness is what makes a successful snitch). An informant can steal a portion of the buy money or drugs. Lazy cops can even make it possible for a rogue snitch to frame a totally innocent person.

I was once contacted by a top-ranked female bodybuilder who’d never been in trouble before, but now found herself charged with selling steroids to an informant inside the gym she owns. The abbreviated facts are that the snitch, facing his own drug charges, targeted my client to the local drug task force by claiming he’d arranged by phone with her to go to her gym, give her money, and receive a bottle of multivitamins with a hidden vial of testosterone inside. Later that day, the snitch met with the cops. They patted him down for money or drugs and did a quick search of his car. Finding nothing, they gave him the cash, put a wire on him, and let him drive to the gym while they waited nearby. After a lengthy recorded conversation between the snitch and my client about bodybuilding, he asked for the bottle of multivitamins. She rang up the sale and gave him the bottle. Shortly afterward, he delivered the bottle to the cops and inside was the vial of testosterone. The police viewed it as an open-and-shut case, as did the prosecutor. He offered my client a “no jail” plea, but if she refused it and lost at trial she’d face over 10 years in prison.

I had a client I believed was 100 percent innocent. Two “discovery” procedures requiring the prosecutor to disclose certain information pretrial, upon demand, enabled me to prove it. First, I obtained a copy of the audiotape of the transaction. When I listened to it, I understood what the snitch had done. Second, I demanded to interview the snitch before trial. Luckily, this was one of the few jurisdictions permitting this. So, I packed my bag and flew out west to nail this lying rat to the wall.

The critical moment in the transaction occurred after the snitch received the bottle but before he delivered it to the cops. He asked to use the bathroom. Hmm, why couldn’t he wait five minutes until after he delivered the evidence? The reason, he claimed under my cross-examination, was a desperate need to urinate. I pressed him further and he took the bait. He droned on about the uncomfortable urgency of his problem, and then detailed his glorious relief at emptying his bladder. But he’d walked into my trap. The wire he had been wearing was still recording in the bathroom. When I played the audio, the prosecutor’s face turned ashen. There wasn’t a “tinkle” to be heard. Instead, there was the unmistakable sound of vitamin-sized objects hitting porcelain as the dirty rat dumped them into the bowl and flushed, making space in the vitamin bottle for him to insert the vial himself and frame my client. Client exonerated … and case rightfully dismissed!

Why’d this snitch frame my client? Presumably he wanted his sweetheart deal, didn’t want to set up any real drug dealers, and figured a national-level bodybuilder would be an easy mark (pretty scary, huh?). Where he hid the vial isn’t certain, but half-assed pat-down searches and quickie car checks don’t cut it. And agents should never have taken the snitch’s word about the original phone call— if it had been recorded, none of this injustice would have happened.

Rick Collins, JD, CSCS [rickcollins.com] is the lawyer that members of the bodybuilding community and nutritional supplement industry turn to when they need legal help or representation. [© Rick Collins, 2017. All rights reserved. For informational purposes only, not to be construed as legal or medical advice.

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