Former Kim Rothstein bodyguard Joe Alu can be a very slippery guy. He called me today because he didn't like the mention of the steroids investigation in the previous post, but when I asked about his former employer, he went all "60 Minutes lawyer" on me. A snippet of our conversation:
Me: How long have you been out of Kim's employ?Joe: How do you know I'm not working for Kim anymore?
Me: I have different sources.
Joe: You don't know I'm not working for Kim. You have no way to know that.
Me: You're not working for Kim, are you?
Joe: You don't know that because you have no way of knowing that.
Me: Well, are you working for Kim?
Joe: I'm not saying that I'm working for Kim, no. I'm not saying I even see Kim anymore. But obviously you have no way of knowing that I work for Kim. You don't know what I do.
Me: You don't work for Kim, though.
Joe: It's obvious I don't work for Kim anymore, but you can't...
It went on and on. Bottom line, Alu says he's doing well post-Kim Rothstein. He doesn't rule out trying to get work at another police department since FLPD apparently isn't going to hire him to fill one of its three open positions.
Alu also took issue with my mention of a "steroids investigation" and said his retirement from the Plantation Police Department had nothing to do with any steroids investigation (which he claimed didn't exist either -- it was an "administrative inquiry" he said).
"The chief cleared me of any wrongdoing," Alu said. "I had legal prescriptions for a medical reason. I didn't leave because of any kind of investigation. I left for more money."
That offer, of course, came from Scott Rothstein, who represented Alu and another officer in the steroids investigation before giving both cops jobs as bodyguards.
Inside, more on the whole steroids angle, and it's about a whole lot more than just Joe Alu.
The following comes from a report of mine about the Plantation investigation done in April 2009, six months before Rothstein's implosion. It's mostly told in the words of Marty Hommel, a Plantation cop who, like Alu, had a prescription for anabolic steroids at a dubious clinic. (Just for the record, Hommel seemed to have legitimate medical reasons for his steroid use and was never overly muscular). Both Alu and Hommel were initially accused by an IA investigator of violating department rules before former Plantation Police Chief Larry Massey exonerated them.
Here's the brunt of the work I did on the steroids investigation:
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Back in 2005, BSO shut down a fraudulent clinic in Deerfield Beach called PowerMedica, which provided steroids to eight deputies. Some of the same men who were behind the PowerMedica scandal simply opened up new clinics that, again, wooed cops to become customers.
Hommel says he obtained his steroids at one of the new clinics, a place called the Liefestyle Rejuvenation Center which had both a storefront in Coral Springs and a related pharmacy in Pembroke Pines. He learned about the center from a flier that landed in his mailbox in 2006 or 2007. He says Alu -- who is a noted bodybuilder -- received a flier at about the same time.
Hommel says he had taken steroids prescribed by his family doctor back in 1999 and that he was feeling aches from tissue deterioration caused by his advancing age and training. "You have to understand that I married late and have two young children who I want to be there for," he says. "I don't want to attract women or become huge. I just want a long and healthy lifestyle. I'm not some egocentric wiseguy."
The flier included a list of extremely cheap steroids. A month's worth of testosterone or nandrolone ran about $30 at Lifestyle Rejuvenation, a third of what he'd pay through medical insurance.
He and Alu went to the clinic together, and doctors prescribed both men steroids based on "low testosterone levels." The results were obvious.
"I gained a little weight," he says. "I would see Joe and tell him he was putting some on, and he would say, 'Yeah, this is helping me do that.' I can't speak for Joe, but I was only taking it for my health."
Hommel says that, despite the low prices and easy access, he didn't think anything was suspect about the center. He certainly didn't know that Lifestyle Rejuvenation was under investigation by a BSO detective named Lisa McElhaney, the agency's drug diversion officer. And he says he only learned later that numerous BSO deputies were also utilizing the center for steroids.
McElhaney captured surveillance photos of Alu and Hommel at the clinic and reported them to supervisors at the Plantation department, Hommel says. Both officers were tested for steroids and came up positive, which triggered the internal affairs investigation.
"I was caught up in a dragnet," says Hommel. "And I didn't do anything wrong."
Internal Affairs, however, didn't agree. Initially, the department found that Hommel and Alu violated department rules regarding controlled substances because there was no medical necessity for either man to take steroids.
Then Chief Massey stepped in and exonerated both officers in December 2007.
On top of his debatable action, Massey has violated the state's open records laws by hiding basic facts of the case.
While BSO and Plantation are all but mute on the issue, Hommel says he learned during the course of the investigation that Lifestyle Rejuvenation was allegedly part of a "nationwide conspiracy to distribute testosterone." He said he was told by lawyers involved in his case that the center was producing the steroids with "precursor substances" it had improperly received from China.
"I guess that's why it was so cheap," Hommel says. "When I heard that, I ran straight to my doctor to see if I was okay. I mean, I thought the stuff might have been poison. Thankfully I checked out fine."
Hommel says authorities shut down both the clinic and pharmacy, but BSO hasn't responded to my request for records on McElhaney's investigation. The sheriff's office, however, never publicized it, and it doesn't appear that anyone was arrested.
In fact, two men listed on Lifestyle Rejuvenation corporate records as principals now run a small operation in a strip mall on Sunrise Boulevard in Plantation called "Tropical Pharmacy." That name isn't on the business; instead the sign over the door says simply, "Wellness Center."
Attempts to reach the two men, Lancelot James and Claude White, were unsuccessful. A check of Florida corporate records shows that James has been president of numerous pharmacies and clinics. Lawyer David Ferguson, who represented PowerMedica, says he was never able to find James ....
One doctor who prescribed medication for Hommel at Lifestyle Rejuvenation was Dr. Nathan Moy, a podiatrist who also used to work at PowerMedica. While there's no indication Moy has been hit with any criminal charges regarding the clinic, he's had his scrapes with the law and regulators.
In 2007, Pembroke Pines police charged Moy with DUI and possession with intent to sell valium. Moy refused to comment for this article, but his attorney, Billy Ponds, of Washington, D.C., told me Moy was sentenced to probation on the DUI charge and that the valium charge is open but he expects it to be dismissed.
The Florida Department of Health ruled in a 2006 case that has yet to be resolved that Moy violated medical records law and performed services outside the scope of the law. It's not clear if that case was related to PowerMedica.
Such clinics generally operate on the law's border. A veteran in the business, Kristian Mecoli, says that Lifestyle Rejuvenation sent fliers to all former patients who used PowerMedica. All of those deputies were cleared of wrongdoing because they were given prescriptions.
Mecoli knows the business. He worked as a vice president at PowerMedica and operated a clinic called Medical Arts Therapy with Moy, among other ventures.
"I've told police officers to their face that if they don't use them properly, it will alter their perceptions," says Mecoli, who says he had nothing to do with Lifestyle Rejuvenation. "I don't want to be some big, ugly, six-foot, 240 pounds like some of these cops. And I don't want to be pulled over by a cop like that. I don't want someone like that to snap on me."
Mecoli says that he's seen cops who, like Hommel, make a decent case for using the substance and others who are clearly abusing it. Mecoli says the problem is that shady doctors and pharmacists at times prescribe steroids for testosterone levels that aren't really low.
"I believe that police shouldn't be on steroids unless they really need it," he says. "The departments, if they really want to do something about it, need to have the department check the testosterone levels. You need a doctor who is tied to the department to do the testing."
Hommel says that the 16 deputies who recently came under investigation for steroids were tied to the Lifestyle Rejuvenation case. BSO spokesman Jim Leljedal won't confirm or deny that. In fact, BSO refuses to release the investigative report on the 2005 PowerMedica case in which the eight deputies were cleared.
The extent of the problem is impossible to decipher though, because of the secrecy. Sources say BSO sat on the latest steroids scandal until McElhaney reported the case to the State Attorney's Office to ensure action was taken on her investigation. McElhaney didn't return a call for comment.
"If any cops have a problem with these things, then they need to be stopped from using them," says Hommel. "That wasn't me, though. I'm not a psycho, and I didn't get gigantic."
Maybe so, but unfortunately the truth about cops and steroids is almost impossible to know -- thanks to a shield of secrecy.
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That secrecy continues today. When it comes to steroids and cops, the brass hides behind privacy laws, and very often nobody gets touched for it.
At that time, I also spoke with Rothstein. Here's the section of one of the stories I did dealing with that interview:
"Had they done anything wrong, they would have been disciplined, they would have been prosecuted," Rothstein told me. "You can't make something out of something that does not exist."
I told him that it appeared that the I.A. investigators had determined that the two officers had indeed violated the department's policy, only to have Massey personally exonerate them.
"I don't remember what the finding was, but I know they were both lawfully prescribed the medication they were taking," Rothstein said.
I asked him what he thought of the use of steroids in general.
"If you're using them for a real medical purpose, they can be great," he said. "They help people who are burn victims, people who have growth issues, people who have hormonal issues. People who are using them illegally, it's bad news. They harm themselves, and they create a dangerous situation for others because of aggression issues."
In the case of Alu, who didn't respond to a request for comment, Rothstein cited the 1995 burn injury. But Alu, I also knew, was a bruiser of a guy, an avid weightlifter. Might he be abusing the drugs? Might the original finding have been correct?
"Just because someone reaches a conclusion doesn't mean they were right," Rothstein said. "Neither of them did anything wrong... The chief did what he believed to be the right thing."
Best line, in retrospect: "You can't make something out of something that does not exist."
