Roswell Police Lt. James McGee – the truth, the whole truth, and nothing close to the truth

Roswell, Georgia Police Lieutenant James McGee was a media darling for a brief period of time in 2008 when he assumed the role of media representative for the FDA to the Georgia press. His comments appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, both online and in print, and he gave numerous interviews both on the radio (WSB Radio in Atlanta) and television (Fox 5 Atlanta). He told the media, and countless millions of people, that the federal government had just busted a couple who were running a $30k dollar per day business selling anabolic steroids and human growth hormone out of their home. That’s what he told the media, and that’s what millions of people learned from him. Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared, it turned out that the couple was not selling anabolic steroids, they were not selling human growth hormone, and they were not earning $35k dollars per day. When the smoke cleared, it turns out that almost nothing that Lt. McGee had told the media was true.

There were hundreds of pages of court documents to examine in this case, if not thousands – and I examined every single one of them. I didn’t just examine them, I examined and re-examined them and re-re-examined them. I looked for something, anything, that would allow me to pinpoint where the false statements had come from. Everything led me back to Lt. McGee:

• “Federal authorities believe the couple was selling steroids and drugs for erectile dysfunction without a permit from the Federal Drug Administration, said Roswell Police Lt. James McGee.“ (Atlanta Journal-Constitution,05/15/08: Suspects in mail-order drug operation arrested)

• “Roswell Police Lieutenant James McGee said Tuesday the operation sold HGH, testosterone…“ (My Fox Atlanta, 5/14/2008: Police: Mansion residents earning $30k a day making drugs)

• “The drug-making operation selling HGH, testosterone, and copy-cat versions of Cialis online and through mail-order netted an estimated $25,000 to $30,000 a day, said Roswell police Lt. James McGee. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 05/13/08: Cops say copycat drugs were made at Roswell home)
• “Federal authorities believe the couple was selling steroids and drugs for erectile dysfunction without a permit from the Federal Drug Administration, said Roswell police Lt. James McGee“ (Atlanta Journal-Constitution,05/16/08: 2 Held in sale of mail-order drugs)
• Click for live interview with Lt. McGee, on Fox 5 News, where he alleges that the couple were selling testosterone, an anabolic steroid.

No matter how hard I looked, every official statement, whether it was “what federal authorities believe” or “what the FDA believes,” all came from Lt. James McGee. But things looked a bit different when I started looking at the official documents – in fact, there is solid evidence that federal authorities did not believe that the couple was ever selling anabolic steroids or human growth hormone.

Transcript 080520NGDA, an official document from the Northern District of Georgia Atlanta Division, is a 108 page document that contains testimony from FDA-OCI Special Agent Gerald Dunham, who was in charge of the investigation. On page 6 of the transcript the agent says that the investigation involved prescription medications and controlled substances, and specifically names erectile dysfunction drugs. Throughout the testimony, various substances are named as being manufactured and found on the premises, and suspected of being sold by the couple. At no point in the testimony did the agent mention that the couple, Christian and Jennifer Navoy – the co-owners of ResearchChemist.com, had been selling anabolic steroids or growth hormone. In fact, he directly states that he had no reason to believe that they were:

(*Official Document 080520NDGA, page 31, lines 19 through 25)

• (Question): Did you ever request to purchase anabolic steroids or human growth hormone from researchchemist.com or Jennifer Navoy or Christian Navoy?
• Agent Dunham: No.
• (Question): And they never sent anabolic steroids, human growth hormone, to you or anyone you know of?
• Agent Dunham: Correct.

Clearly, the agent who spearheaded this operation had no knowledge of the couple having ever done anything alleged by Lt. McGee. Additionally, the federal agent who ran the operation seems to be directly contradicting the statements made by Lt. McGee to the media. In fact, there were no steroid distribution charges filed against the Navoys. Furthermore, there was no mention of the suspicion of either steroid or growth hormone being sold by the couple, on any of the official documents, nor did the search warrant contain anything that could be construed to indicate that the federal government had suspected either Jennifer or Christopher Navoy of selling “drugs” any more nefarious than Viagra.

But $30k dollars per day is a lot of money from just selling erectile dysfunction drugs out of your home, right? Well, it turns out that Lt. McGee’s figures were greatly inflated when he spoke to the media. In fact, his “daily” estimates for the Navoy’s business were closer to monthly estimates.  In none of the months I’ve reviewed, and I have examined their income tax statements for the entire time they were in business, and noted that they never reached the $100k dollar mark in any single month since 2003, when their business was formed. For 2007, in any given month, they never reached $75k. So where did Lt. McGee get $35k dollars per day? If we look at their income for 2007, we see that the $30k dollar figure is roughly 20x more than they were actually making. I’m getting my numbers from official documents. Where did he get his?

I’m glad you asked, because I that’s exactly what I asked McGee. When I phoned him, he directed me to present my questions in email form, and send them to him for review – which I did.  I also phoned Agent Dunham, to get his side of the story – and perhaps to learn where Lt. McGee was getting his information from. Dunham also told me to put my questions in writing so he could run them by his supervisor and see what he’d be able to tell me. They were both given ample time and opportunity to defend McGee’s various statements, or provide me with a citation or official document  prior to McGee’s statements to the press, which would verify that these falsehoods did not originate with him.

Lt. McGee, when I finally got the chance to interview him, on the record, was unable to give me the name of the person who had supplied him with the information – when confronted with the facts as they were presented, verbatim, told me he had never seen any official documents. I asked him if, at some point, the responsibility fell on him to actually read the official documents, and verify that he was properly informing the media, and he said that they have a lot of documents, and….something or other. He stated that, at times, they execute a warrant and find things that were not on the warrant. I asked him if he typically speculates on this kind of thing to the media….if perhaps he could have just as easily told the media that the couple was suspected of dealing cocaine, or trafficking in human slaves. Hey, they could have found those things too, right.

Hello? Hello? Lt. McGee? I think we got disconnected or something. I have no idea what happened there, because I had 4 bars on my phone and I called him at the police station on their central number….

He hadn’t seen the warrant or the indictment. Someone (who he didn’t remember the name of) just told him that this couple was suspected of dealing anabolic steroids and growth hormone, and earning $30k per day doing so. But he can’t recall the name of this mysterious person. At that point of the co

No newspapers printed any retractions, amendments, or clarifications, and in the mainstream media, both of the Navoys are now steroid dealers, even though no steroid distribution charges were ever filed against them. In cases like this, as long as nobody is watching, the media never issues any kind of retractions, or holds anyone accountable publicly. They want to maintain their working relationship with local police departments, and if that means letting them lie to them and through them, then that’s what they do. It doesn’t happen all of the time, but when it does, and people are falsely accused, they should come clean and print a retraction, explanation, or correction.

Even after Christian plead guilty (not to steroid distribution, and not to growth hormone distribution), Channel Two News reported that the couple “Was accused of manufacturing steroids” and that “Investigators believe the couple ran a steroid laboratory” – but in fact this was never an accusation nor was it the belief of investigators. The title of the story was “Steroid Plea.” None of the media outlets that reported on this story did anything more than believe what they were told by Lt. McGee, and clearly none did any independent research to confirm any of the facts related to the case. It’s sad, sloppy journalism, and lacks integrity.

In the absence of compelling proof to the contrary, I am forced to believe that Lt. McGee purposely lied and mislead the media, and continued to do so throughout this case and investigation. The real crime here was perpetrated on the Navoys, the media, and the American public who were force-fed whatever lies kept Lt. McGee in front of the camera and in the media, feeding on the steroid hysteria that has become all too common  – the real crime here was the murdering of the truth,  and the real criminal is Lt. James McGee.

Original Source: http://www.anthonyroberts.co.za/?p=3698