Bosch To Plead Guilty In A-Rod Steroids Investigation
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - The man at the center of the investigation involving a Coral Gables clinic which reportedly sold banned steroids to Major League Baseball players has cut a deal with prosecutors.
Guy Lewis, an attorney for Anthony Bosch, informed U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles during a hearing Wednesday that the case has been resolved with prosecutors and his client would plead guilty next month, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald. Bosch said nothing during the preceding.
Read The Federal Complaint Against Anthony Bosch
Bosch, who initially pleaded not guilty, has reportedly signed a plea agreement less than a week before he was to go on trial.
Bosch, who operated the now defunct Biogenesis Clinic, has reportedly admitted to selling up to 5,000 units of testosterone to New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez and other professional and high school ballplayers.
Under terms of the plea agreement, Bosch is facing up to 10 years in prison.
Bosch has agreed to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. attorney's office in the investigation, which could help him obtain a significantly lesser sentence, according to the Miami Herald.
Last month Bosch and six other people who allegedly made up his supply and distribution network were indicted in the MLB doping scandal investigation.
Among the others charged were Alex Rodriguez's cousin Yuri Sucart, Carlos Javier Acevedo, 35, of Miami; Jorge Augustine Velazquez, 43, of Miami; Christopher Benjamin Engroba, 25, of Miami; Lazaro Daniel Collazo, 50, of Hialeah; and Juan Carlos Nuñez, 48, of Fort Lauderdale.
Sucart, 52, was banned from the Yankees clubhouse, charter flights, bus and other team-related activities by Major League Baseball in 2009 after Rodriguez admitted he used steroids while with Texas from 2000 to 2003, saying Sucart obtained and injected the drugs for him.
Collazo is a former pitching coach for the universities of Miami, Louisville and South Florida who has also worked as a private instructor with numerous high school, college and professional pitchers. His University of Miami biography says he worked with Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer during his 1991 comeback attempt, seven years after Palmer's retirement.
So far no athletes have been charged as part of the investigation. Professional athletes reportedly paid up to $12,000 a month for the drugs provided by Biogenesis, while high schoolers paid up to $600 a month. All Bosch's clients were promised that the substances would not be found through drug testing, according to prosecutors.
The scandal broke in January 2013 when the Miami New Times published an expose that detailed how Bosch, through his unlicensed clinic, was secretly dealing steroids to ballplayers and other sports figures.
One of his employees, Porter Fischer, went to the newspaper with documents he had taken from the clinic, including client lists and the amounts they had paid for the drugs.
Fischer spoke to CBS4 Investigative Reporter Jim DeFede exclusively in August 2013.
Watch Jim DeFede's Interview With Porter Fischer
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Judge Orders Fischer Not Destroy Biogenesis Documents
Originally, MLB sued Biogenesis and Bosch, along with others, claiming they created a violation of the players' contracts by supplying them with banned substances.
CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald contributed to this report.
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