Fox Sports Celebs Driven on Taxpayers' Dime

Jan. 12, 2008— -- A then-U.S. Marshals employee misused taxpayer dollars while working as a Fox Sports statistician by arranging the use of the service's vehicles and resources to transport network commentators including Joe Buck, Tim McCarver and Troy Aikman, according to a new inspector general report on the matter.

The Marshals Service is best known for tracking down fugitives and providing judicial security. The Justice Department inspector general reviewed allegations that Joseph Band, a former attorney in the Marshals Service office of general counsel, arranged for U.S. marshals to transport celebrities from Fox Sports to and from sporting events on more than five occasions.

The investigation was opened after an anonymous tip that deputy U.S. marshals had transported Fox Sports commentators Buck and McCarver from Fenway Park as part of a detail reportedly arranged by Band and acting U.S. marshal Yvonne Bonner.

Bonner had authorized two deputies to assist Band while he was working part time as a statistician for Fox Sports while at the World Series in Boston, the report said. Although the deputies were removed from the press box area by a Red Sox official after Game 1 of the World Series, two deputies escorted McCarver's limousine from Fenway Park to the Four Seasons hotel with "their emergency lights on as they were attempting to work their way out of the immediate area of Fenway Park," according to the report.

During Game 2 Band reportedly tried to get the marshals to stay in the press box and handed note pads to the two deputies "to make it look like they were busy so they would not be asked to leave the press area," according to the report. The marshals were eventually asked to leave the press box by a Fox Sports official and walked around the historic ballpark for the duration of the game.

According to the report, the marshals encountered another deputy who was assigned to the FBI's joint terrorism task force, who told the Inspector General's Office that one of the deputies seemed nervous about the detail and told her, "This is all f-- up. Something's not right here." According to the report the woman deputy said one of the marshals on the detail "told her that Band had directed him to make telephone calls to find out about weather conditions, such as humidity levels at Fenway Park."

According to the review, "Band said he knew that the [deputy U.S. marshals], whom he considered to be off duty, had used USMS [U.S. Marshals Service] vehicles to attend the games and transport him but he said that he saw nothing improper about such activity."