Jones' camp says 'lies, lies'
Attorneys for the Olympic champion say ex-husband's claims that he injected her with drugs aren't true.
Drug scandal figure C.J. Hunter, leaving N.C. State's football facility, has little to say Friday.
Staff Photo by Chris Seward
By NED BARNETT, Staff Writer
RALEIGH -- Marion Jones' attorneys, scrambling to douse what is now a fire of suspicion threatening her reputation, on Friday denounced her former husband, C.J. Hunter, as a liar for saying she had used performance-enhancing drugs.
Jones' general counsel, Rich Nichols, said Hunter's reported statements that Jones had injected drugs up to the time she competed in the 2000 Olympics were "lies, lies and still more lies."
Hunter reportedly made the allegation to an IRS investigator looking into Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, a California nutritional supplement company. Hunter's statements were leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle and published Friday.
Jones, a five-time Olympic medalist who lives near Chapel Hill, was not available for comment, but Nichols said that "she's not surprised that C.J. would lie about her."
Nichols and Joseph Burton, a former assistant U.S. Attorney who is defending Jones against a potential doping charge, also released a letter from Jones' personal physician, Dr. Richard Ferro of Duke University Medical Center.
The letter said Ferro saw no evidence that Jones had used performance-enhancing drugs since he began caring for her in 2001. However, the lawyers had no information from doctors who treated Jones before 2001, the period when Hunter said he sometimes personally injected Jones with such drugs
Jones and Hunter, an assistant strength and conditioning coach for N.C. State's football program, were divorced in 2002. A former world champion shot-putter, Hunter retired in 2000 after testing positive four times for the steroid nandrolone.
When Hunter's positive tests were disclosed at the Sydney Olympics, Jones attended a news conference to support her tearful husband, who said he was the victim of a contaminated iron supplement.
On Friday, Hunter declined to elaborate on his reported statements implicating Jones.
A News & Observer reporter who met Hunter as he went to his car outside N.C. State's Murphy Football Center asked, "Did you get drugs from BALCO and provide them for Marion Jones?"
When Hunter did not answer, he was asked whether he had "any comment at all."
"Yeah," Hunter said. "You've got to be kidding me."
Though Hunter's leaked statements damaged Jones, they also may complicate his position at NCSU. He has gone from being an athlete accused of doping to a coach who admitted supplying and injecting his ex-wife with drugs.
NCSU AD Lee Fowler could not be reached for comment Friday, but he previously has said he and football coach Chuck Amato were comfortable with Hunter supervising players' strength training.
One prominent faculty member said the athletics department may want to review Hunter's status.
Philip B. Carter, a professor of microbiology and immunology, is past chairman of the NCSU faculty senate and recently served on the school's athletics council.
"I'm sure Lee Fowler or Chuck Amato will want to ask questions and are monitoring this situation," Carter said Friday. "If [Hunter] is admitting being involved with steroids, I'm sure it will raise some red flags with his superiors. They will ask, 'How much of this is true, C.J., and does it involve any of our student-athletes?' "
Jones' attorneys also demanded an investigation into how Hunter's statements to a federal investigator became public. Nichols said the leak was the latest in a series that includes the leaked grand jury testimony of Jones' boyfriend, Tim Montgomery. In that testimony, Montgomery admitted using drugs.
Nichols said the leaks support the agenda of federal prosecutors and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
"This is character assassination of the worst kind where apparently the government and USADA are willing accomplices," he said.
Of the publishing of Hunter's comments, Burton said, "What took place yesterday is one of the worst examples of misconduct I have ever seen."
The IRS and other federal agencies are probing whether BALCO illegally supplied steroids to elite athletes. Company owner Victor Conte Jr. and three other men have been indicted.
USADA is moving to ban athletes who are found to have used BALCO's steroids. Sprinter Kelli White accepted a two-year ban after the agency confronted her with evidence from the BALCO case. It has informed Montgomery, and sprinters Michelle Collins, Chryste Gaines and Alvin Harrison that they are suspected of doping based on BALCO documents.
USADA has taken no action against Jones, who has qualified to compete in the long jump at the Olympics. But the agency has questioned her and may take action if it develops enough evidence that she has used drugs despite never having failed a drug test.
Jill Geer, a spokeswoman for USA Track and Field, the governing body of the sport, said Hunter's statements would have no immediate effect on Jones' Olympic eligibility. Any change would depend on action from USADA or the International Association of Athletics Federations.
"She is eligible just like every other athlete," Geer said. "The only way she would not be eligible is if she's suspended by IAAF or USADA."
Jones problems could affect her being chosen for the 4x100 and 4x400 relay teams, two events she ran in Sydney. U.S. Olympic coaches have indicated they will avoid placing on relay teams athletes who face or appear likely to face doping charges.
(Staff writers J.P. Giglio, Chip Alexander, Robbi Pickeral and Luciana Chavez contributed to this report.)
Staff writer Ned Barnett can be reached at 829-4555 or
[email protected]
Staff writers J.P. Giglio, Chip Alexander, Robbi Pickeral and Luciana Chavez contributed to this report.
