In latest legal action, Olympian accused of peddling heroin
By Tim McGlone
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 2, 2008
NORFOLK
Olympic gold medal winner Tim Montgomery has been indicted on a federal heroin distribution charge, adding to a litany of legal and professional woes for the one-time Norfolk State University sprinter.
Montgomery, 33, said in a jailhouse interview Thursday that he had "no idea" what the charge is about.
"They said I sold 100 grams of heroin to an informant," he said from the Portsmouth city jail, where he is being held pending a bond hearing Monday in U.S. District Court.
When pressed repeatedly whether he knew anything about the allegations, he said, "No, I don't."
Montgomery was arrested Wednesday on a sealed indictment charging him with conspiracy to distribute heroin. The indictment provides scant details, other than accusing him of dealing more than 100 grams, or 3-1/2 ounces, of heroin between last year and this year somewhere in eastern Virginia.
Federal authorities made no public announcement of the arrest. Officials in the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which investigated Montgomery, declined to comment Thursday.
Montgomery, once dubbed the fastest human on Earth, made an initial appearance in U.S. District Court on Wednesday afternoon. He said he didn't have an attorney yet.
Montgomery already faces sentencing next month in a
$5 million New York-based check-kiting case that also snared his one-time coach Steve Riddick, who once trained athletes at Norfolk State. Montgomery's attorneys in that case said they will not be representing him in the drug case and knew nothing of that charge.
He had been free on bond since his arrest in May 2006 in the New York case. Montgomery said he has been living in Virginia Beach, helping promote the nightclub Encore, and training runners at Norfolk State. However, university officials said they have no record of Montgomery training runners there.
He said he was making his monthly visit to his probation officer at the Norfolk federal courthouse Wednesday when a U.S. marshal and a DEA agent arrested him. It was a "total surprise," Montgomery said.
He said he's been kept in solitary confinement at the jail because, he was told, he is a "high-profile inmate."
Hints of Montgomery's alleged drug involvement emerged in Riddick's trial last year.
Trying to deflect blame, Riddick's trial attorney Bryan Hoss told the jury that Montgomery "started brokering kilo-quantities of drugs" with an unindicted co-conspirator in the check ring. Hoss declined to elaborate afterward and did not return a call Thursday. Riddick was found guilty and is currently serving a five-year prison term.
Montgomery pleaded guilty in the check-kiting conspiracy, admitting he helped Riddick and others cash $1.7 million in stolen and counterfeit checks over a three-year period. He faces 37 to 46 months in prison when he is sentenced on May 16 in New York.
In the interview, Montgomery acknowledged that he made mistakes in the past
"You get caught up in the achievements. You get blinded and make really bad mistakes," he said.
But he made no excuses.
"I'm a man of my own actions and I take full responsibility for my own actions," he said.
"My life should have changed after track and field," he continued, "but I didn't follow my calling to teach others what not to do."
Montgomery won a gold medal in the 400 relay at the 2000 Olympics and a silver medal in the 400 relay at the 1996 Olympics. He and his former companion, former Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones, moved to Hampton Roads to train under Riddick in 2004.
The couple had a child, Tim Jr., in 2003, but Montgomery and Jones have since split. Montgomery said he hasn't seen his son since before his first arrest in 2006. Jones is currently serving a six-month prison term for her minor role in the check scheme as well as her admitted use of steroids. She was stripped of her 2000 Olympic medals, and her world records were scratched.
In December 2005, Montgomery was banned from track for two years for doping and he subsequently retired. The ruling was based on evidence gathered in the criminal investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or Balco, which prosecutors say distributed steroids to elite athletes, among them baseball star Barry Bonds.
Montgomery never tested positive for performance drugs and has said he never knowingly took a banned substance. All of his performances after March 31, 2001 - including his world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100-meter dash in September 2002 - were wiped off the books.
He also was forced to relinquish two medals from the 2001 World Championships and was told to return all prize money and appearance fees he had earned after March 2001.
"I'm just going to pray," he said, "and turn to God to fix it."
