Marion Jones' attorney insists Hunter's accusations are false



He wants C.J. Hunter to take a lie-detector test in the doping scandal.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
They walked into the room holding hands. They kissed and talked about supporting each other, a touching scene of a wife standing by her embattled husband.
That snapshot was from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where Marion Jones paused during her run to an unprecedented five track and field medals to defend husband C.J. Hunter, who was besieged by drug allegations.
Four years later, it is Jones who faces drug allegations -- and Hunter, now her ex-husband, is the one accusing her of doping. If true, Jones could lose her spot on the U.S. team for the upcoming Athens Games and perhaps forfeit her three gold and two bronze medals from Sydney.
Published reports said Friday that Hunter, a former world champion shot putter, told federal investigators he personally injected Jones with banned substances and saw Jones inject herself with performance-enhancing drugs in Australia.
Hunter told Internal Revenue Service agents that Jones used human growth hormone, insulin, the endurance-boosting drug EPO and the steroid THG, according to a federal memo obtained by the San Francisco Chronicle.
Lie-detector test
Jones' attorney, Joseph Burton, said Hunter was lying and sent a letter to federal authorities Friday asking them to give Hunter a lie-detector test and then to charge him with making false statements if he fails the polygraph test.
Jones remains under investigation by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, but has not been charged with any doping offense. She has repeatedly denied using drugs.
Hunter retired from track and field after testing positive four times for steroids in 2000. Instead of competing at the Sydney Olympics, he removed himself from the U.S. team because of an injury and then addressed reporters at a news conference with Jones at his side.
Also present was Hunter's nutritionist, Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, who said the shot putter had tested positive due to contaminated iron supplements.
Conte is one of four men who have pleaded innocent in the BALCO case to federal charges of illegally distributing steroids to top athletes.
Hunter's interview
Hunter gave a 21/2-hour interview to IRS agents in early June in Raleigh, N.C., and later appeared before the grand jury probing BALCO.
Citing investigators' memos, the Chronicle said Hunter told federal authorities that Jones used banned substances before, during and after the Sydney Games.
"Hunter stated that he saw Jones inject herself with EPO," IRS agent Erwin Rogers wrote in one of the memos quoted by the Chronicle. "Jones would inject herself in the front waist line area slightly underneath the skin. ... Initially, Hunter injected Jones because Jones did not want to inject herself in this location."
Jones' lawyers, in a conference call Friday, implied that federal authorities may have been behind the leak of Hunter's interview with the IRS agents.
"If leaked by the government ... this would be a criminal matter," Burton said.
Polygraph tests
The attorneys called on the federal Justice and Treasury departments to administer polygraph tests to find the source of the leak.
"What has been going on is character assassination of the worst kind, with the government and USADA acting as willing accomplices," lawyer Rich Nichols said.
Jones and her boyfriend, Tim Montgomery, were among dozens of athletes who testified before the BALCO grand jury last fall. Montgomery, world record holder at 100 meters, has been charged by USADA with steroid use and faces a lifetime ban if found guilty.
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