Feds: Doc Gave 'Roids to Baseball Players

April 9, 2008— -- A federal grand jury in San Jose has handed down an eleven-count indictment against a California doctor and two of his employees for allegedly distributing steroids to professional baseball players, though none of the players are named in the court documents.

According to the indictment, Dr. Ramon Scruggs, who operated a medical practice at the New Hope Health Center in Costa Mesa, Calif., is accused of conspiring to illegally distribute anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, and other prescription drugs.

Allan Danto, who worked as a consultant to New Hope and Heidi MacPherson, office manager of the center, were also indicted.

The indictment alleges Scruggs and his employees, Danto and MacPherson, supplied steroids and other performance enhancing drugs to professional baseball players, law enforcement officers and others.

The performance enhancing drugs included nandrolone, testosterone, stanozolol and human growth hormone.

The indictment further alleges that sports agents for professional baseball players referred their client-players to Scruggs, Danto and MacPherson for the purposes of obtaining anabolic steroids and other drugs known to be banned by Major League Baseball. According to the indictment, Scruggs distributed steroids to at least three specific unnamed people between March and May of 2003.

Scruggs is also accused of illegally smuggling human growth hormone into the United States from China. China, host of this summer's Olympic games, is considered by U.S. law enforcement officials to be one of the largest suppliers of illegal human growth hormone to the U.S. black market.

The indictment is the result of a four-year investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Food and Drug Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.