Prosecuted by the Feds

SI Staff | Aug 19, 2010

Prosecuted by the Feds /

Prosecuted by the Feds

Roger Clemens

Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens has been indicted on charges of obstruction of Congress, making false statements and perjury, all of which make him the latest athlete to face prosecution by the federal government. Here are some other athletes who preceded him in court..

Michael Vick

Michael Vick was released from a federal penitentiary on May 20, 2009, after serving 19 months for financing a dog-fighting ring.

Tim Donaghy

The disgraced NBA referee was sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to federal gambling charges.

Greg Anderson

In 2005, Barry Bonds' former trainer received four months of jail time and four months of home confinement in a plea deal in which he admitted to illegally distributing steroids and laundering money in the wake of the BALCO investigation.

Jamal Lewis

Lewis was caught as part of a drug sting and plead guilty in 2004 to federal conspiracy charges, which resulted in a sentence of four months in prison and two in a halfway house. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue suspended him for the first two games of the next season.

Denny McLain

The last Major League pitcher to record 30 wins in a season, McLain's MLB career ended in 1972, when he was 28, due to arm injuries and ties to organized crime. Since his playing days ended, he has been sent to jail twive for the federal crimes of drug trafficking, embezzlement (twice), racketeering and mail fraud.

Riddick Bowe

Bowe, the former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, served 18 months in federal prison for kidnapping his estranged wife and five children and driving them 200 miles away before releasing them.

Pete Rose

Rose received a five-month prison sentence and paid a $50,000 fine (in addition to the $366,041 he already owed the federal government) after pleading guilty to tax evasion charges in 1990, less than a year removed from being placed on baseball's permanently ineligible list.

Muhammad Ali

For his objections to the Vietnam War, Ali was convicted of draft evasion by a federal court in 1967. He was released on bond as he appealed the five-year sentence, and as public sentiment against the war grew, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction with a unanimous decision four years later.

Darryl Strawberry

Among the litany of legal problems Strawberry faced during and after his playing career was a federal tax evasion charge in 1994, for which he served six months of home confinement and paid nearly half a million dollars in back taxes when the case was settled the next year.

Mike Danton

Danton, a former St. Louis Blues left winger, was sentenced to seven and a half years on federal charges for conspiring to murder his own agent, David Frost (inset, lower left), who denied being the target of such a plot.

Art Schlichter

The former Ohio State and Colts quarterback has served time in more than 40 prisons for various charges, such as fraud and forgery, related to the deep gambling debts he found himself in.

Nate Newton

In incidents separated by five weeks in 2001, Newton was caught with 213 and 175 pounds of marijuana, respectively -- a total figure roughly equal to his playing weight at its peak. The former Cowboys guard was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison and ordered to pay a $25,000 fine.

Bam Morris

After leading the Steelers in rushing in the 1996 Super Bowl, Morris was in and out of prison. After his NFL career ended, in large part due to drug problems, Morris pleaded guilty in August 2000 to federal drug trafficking and was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

George Steinbrenner

In 1974, the Yankees owner pleaded guilty to 14 federal counts connected to Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, including making illegal contributions and obstructing justice. Steinbrenner was originally suspended from baseball for two years -- later reduced to just nine months -- but his name was cleared when Ronald Reagan pardoned him in 1989.

Lonny Baxter

Since last playing in the NBA in 2006, Baxter, an NCAA champion with Maryland in 2002, has found himself in trouble twice. He received 60 days in jail for firing a gun into the air near the White House and plead guilty to shipping guns illegally through Federal Express.

Duke Snider

The two former baseball stars both pleaded guilty to tax evasion charges and received probation and fines in the mid-1990s for failing to declare the income they received from memorabilia sales in their post-playing days.

Alonzo Spellman

Despite his diagnosed bipolar disorder, Spellman was determined legally sane enough to serve 18 months in federal prison for disruptive behavior that caused a flight he was on from Cincinnati to Philadelphia to make an emergency landing.

Terry Orr

Orr was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison in 2001 for a wire fraud conviction that included cheating three former teammates, Raleigh McKenzie, Art Monk and Brian Mitchell, out of tens of thousands of dollars on a sham investment deal with a shoe company.

Chuck Muncie

The three-time Pro Bowler served 18 months in a federal prison for cocaine distribution charges in 1989.

Timmy Smith

Smith, who rushed for 204 yards as a rookie in Super Bowl XXII in 1988, pleaded guilty in 2006 to a federal count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He received two and a half years in prison for the transgression. Send comments to siwriters@simail.com.

Published Aug 19, 2010

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