Jones, 61, faced about three years in prison for running an international steroid ring, but a federal judge on Thursday instead put him on probation for five years, with a short period of home arrest.
In a way, U.S. District Judge Don Molloy found that Jones is already imprisoned by fragile emotional and physical health. Putting him in prison, Molloy said, would likely kill him.
Jones, who was arrested along with son-in-law Dana Fiscus in January 2007, has a failing kidney, renal cell carcinoma, a tumor and a pulmonary embolism. A military veteran of Vietnam, Jones still suffers from war-related post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression.
Molloy said government prisons aren't the best place to provide the sort of medical care that Jones needs.
Besides, Molloy said Jones was a good candidate for a probationary sentence regardless of his health woes, in part because of the good work he has done with Alcoholics Anonymous in Missoula.
In fact, Jones has taken on what Molloy described as a “Mother Teresa-like role” with people trying to recover their sobriety.
“I'm satisfied that this is the last that the U.S. attorney's office or this court will see of Jimmy Ray Jones,” Molloy said.
The investigation that led to the arrest of Jones and Fiscus, who will be sentenced on Friday, began in the summer of 2004, when agents in New Orleans noticed that much of the steroid trade they were tracking originated in Missoula.
The Missoula company called itself Pacific Rim Labs, which then fell under the scrutiny of state, local and federal authorities in Missoula.
Agents then started ordering steroids from Pacific Rim, receiving them in a package that bore a return address of Southgate Mall.
After buying steroids from Jones, agents searched his home, where they found steroids, mixing agents, needles, syringes, gel caps and other materials. Agents also seized a host of documents, including wire transfer records from Western Union and other wire-transfer businesses.
In those records, they found evidence that Dana Fiscus had received about $53,000 between November 2004 and May 2006. Agents eventually found between $150,000 and $200,000 in unexplained deposits to Jones' bank accounts.
Fiscus, who is married to a Missoula police officer, told authorities he had been employed by Jones to sell steroids over the Internet.
The men bought steroids through a supplier in China, then resold them over the Internet.
Jones apologized to Molloy and the community in his court appearance Thursday.
“I realize that I screwed up,” Jones said. “I have no excuse, sir.”
In fact, Molloy said it was hard to imagine a good excuse, given the physical problems caused by steroids, as well as the trouble they've caused in professional sports.
In another case, without so many physical and mental-health problems, Molloy said he would likely send a defendant to prison, just to make sure the message is clear that steroids are dangerous.
But in the case of Jones, Molloy saw more good than bad.
“I don't expect to see you back, and I don't want to see you back,” Molloy told Jones.
Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or at mmoore@missoulian.com.
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