: WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. - Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in prison for lying about using steroids and a check-fraud scam, despite her plea that she not be separated from her two young children "even for a short period of time."
"I ask you to be as merciful as a human being can be," said Jones, who cried on her husband's shoulder after she was sentenced.
The disgraced former Olympic champion was ordered to surrender March 11 to begin her term.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas said he gave her the maximum under her plea deal to send a message to athletes who have abused drugs and overlooked the values of "hard work, dedication, teamwork and sportsmanship."
"Athletes in society have an elevated status, they entertain, they inspire, and perhaps, most important, they serve as role models," Karas said.
The 31-year-old Jones also was given two years' probation and supervised release, during which she will be required to perform 800 hours of community service.
The judge said this would take advantage of Jones' "eloquence, strength and her ability to work with kids."
It was her children that worried Jones most as she beseeched the judge for a lighter sentence, talking at length about her two boys, including the infant son she's still nursing.
"My passion in life has always been my family," Jones said. "I know the day is quickly approaching when my boys ask me about these current events. I intend to be honest and forthright ... and guide them into not making the same mistakes."
The sentence completes a stunning fall for the woman who was once the most celebrated female athlete in the world. She won three gold and two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
After long denying she ever had used performance-enhancing drugs, Jones admitted last October she lied to federal investigators in November 2003, acknowledging she took the designer steroid "the clear" from September 2000 to July 2001. "The clear" has been linked to BALCO, the lab at the center of the steroids scandal in professional sports.
She also admitted lying about her knowledge of the involvement of Tim Montgomery, the father of her older son Monty, in a scheme to cash millions of dollars worth of stolen or forged checks. Montgomery and several others have been convicted in that scam. They include Jones' former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, who was to be sentenced later Friday.
After her guilty pleas last October, Jones made an apologetic and teary-eyed statement outside court, saying, "It's with a great amount of shame that I stand before you and tell you that I have betrayed your trust."
"I have been dishonest, and you have the right to be angry with me," she added. "I have let (my family) down. I have let my country down, and I have let myself down. ... I want to ask for your forgiveness for my actions, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."
Jones returned her Olympic medals — golds in the 100 meters, 200 meters and 1,600-meter relay and bronzes in the long jump and 400-meter relay — even before the International Olympic Committee ordered her to do so and wiped her results from the books.
Jones was among the many athletes who testified in 2003 before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative.
On the day she pleaded guilty, prosecutors said a 2003 search warrant at BALCO uncovered ledgers, purchases, doping calendars, and various blood-test results connected to Jones and former coach Trevor Graham.
She took EPO, human growth hormone and THG using drops and injections, according to the court documents that show use in 2000 and 2001.
I was a big Marion Jones supporter I had an opportunity to see her run in competition many years ago. She was poetry in motion! Too bad the name of the poem was Steroids and lying through your teeth!" She deserves her comeuppance tenfold. She let down herself, her dignity, her pride, and en masse to them all her people. Real MOFO Talk.
I feel bad for her, but 6 months for check fraud, she should consider herself lucky becuase that is a federal offense. Its ashame she has children that she will leave but hopefully she learns from these mistakes and watch who she associates with. She may get off for good behavior so she may not have to do the entire 6 months but I knew they would put her in jail they have to make somebody and example out of.
Ok, dumb question..If everybody is now being found to have been using steroids, isn't the playing field leveled? Isn't the winner, really the winner if they're all doped up?
And YES she should be really happy she only got 6mos on a check scam. Feel bad for the kids, but if any lesson is a real lesson, this will be for them.
She'll get it together hopefully. No one should be held accountable the rest of their lives for one mistake. Prayers to her entire family.
@huhduh I trained at NC State Univ where her and Hunter and Montgmery all were apart of team nike in raliegh im telling you man anybody who knows here knows how much her body had changed. She had little babyface with chubby cheeks but still smoking fast but hunter and pushed her to hard and her uncle made her quit bball when in fact she was even better at that at carolina!
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Does anyone remember the Boston Marathon back in 1980, I believe? Rosie Ruiz jumped in the marathon (before technology) and fooled people all over the world that she won. Behavior like that should be punishable. As for Marion, I think she should have been forced to give back the medals and just be charged for the check fraud.
Let this be a lesson to black people....all the misconduct and steroid use in sports and only black people are going to jail *hint* Mark Mcgwire and Hosea Conseco.......White folks are calling us the *** word and wanting to lynch us on national tv......Most of them have a good laugh about it and go right back to what they were doing. Let any black national media site disgrace a white person and the entire production will be *** down for good. I can't see a black person saying on air these cracka azz white folks aren't good for ***, but mass murders, molesting kids, and killing their spouses *oops im sorry that was just an innocent expression . They would have white folks after them like PETA after celebrities for wearing fur.
I didn't know Marian was even married. Years ago, they would give a mother with small children, especially a nursing one, probation but not anymore.
I know this is a different judge, in another state but the judicial system is in dire need of repair. How can we have Nicole Richie, Lindsey Lohan and the other young fools in Hollywood drinking and driving and getting 2 hrs in jail, if that? Examples should be made of all, not just a few.
So what she used steroids and did check fraud scammin'. Everybody has done *** they are not proud of. Give her a *** break.
Marion is the WRONG color look at Nicole Richie-- (*** could PASS for WHITE), Lindsey Lohan, and Brittany...Amy Winehouse...the keep *** up constantly. That particular judge needs to get laid!!!
*** Marion! I was a track athlete for over 10 years! She was my idol. I still love her; it was that *** Montgomery who convinced her to take it in the first place, then SNITCH on her out of vindication....hold your head up girl...she was good before the steroids, they can't deny her that....she fell into the matrix....be strong for your children... I'll still be a fan when you get out!
All of the people who claim they don't know why she 'snitched' on herself need to learn how to read. She confessed because she knew there was evidence against her that would lead to her being caught out, so in confessing she knew the maximum she could get was 6 months. If she had be caught and still continued to claim her innocence, we would now be talking about her being locked up for a lot longer than 6 months, and lets not forget her involvement with the fraud, which is so ironic, words actually fail me.
She has got off lightly, she needs to do her time - and I hope when she gets out she has the decency to disappear out of any sort of public life, I don't want to see any tell all books, newspaper stories, or to see her blubbering on tv... but some how I don't think she will.
i think it shuda stopped with her medals bein taken away coz the way she won them aint fair to her competitors but i dont think that she deserves to b in jail.. she didn hurt nybody but herself and all of us lie sumtyms so ya, she just nided a break.. steroids shuldn b illegal nyway. if chicks wanna luk like men and brothas wanna hav boobs let them!
