Ex-clinic owner seeks sentencing delay in MLB drug case to finish rehab
An attorney for the former owner of the now-closed South Florida Biogenesis clinic that supplied performance-enhancing drugs to Major League Baseball players wants his sentencing delayed so that his client can finish rehab for a drug addiction and so his defense team can review his case, reports the New York Daily News.
Guy Lewis, an attorney for Tony Bosch, asked a Miami federal judge to delay the sentence after Bosch plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute testosterone. He was scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 18 and his lawyer filed a motion to push that back to Feb. 16.
Lewis said that his client needs more treatment for a cocaine addiction.
Bosch, 51, faced 10 years in prison, but prosecutors agreed to recommend a lighter sentence because he cooperated with authorities during an almost two-year investigation.
Six others were charged in the same case that resulted in 14 players being suspended by Major League Baseball, including New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, who was suspended for the entire 2014 season after his original 211-game suspension was reduced by an independent arbitrator following an appeal.
Last month, a judge ordered that Bosch be jailed immediately after he tested positive twice in August for cocaine use. Part of the conditions of his release on $100,000 bail in August was that he stay away from illegal drugs and submit to random urine testing.
U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles then ordered Bosch to undergo rehab on Oct. 16. Lewis says in court papers that they have limited access to their client because phone calls are limited and personal visits are banned in rehab.
- Scooby Axson
