Fountain Valley Firm Involved : Court Papers Describe Steroid Inquiry’s Basis

The investigation of a suspected Fountain Valley-based, nationwide steroid manufacturing network began last September after a Fullerton College football coach suffered an adverse reaction to the drug, according to documents filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court.

The coach, whose name was withheld by police “to protect his privacy,” subsequently gave a bottle of steroids to an informant who took them to authorities, launching a four-month investigation by police and state and federal heath agencies.

That investigation surfaced last week when authorities raided the suspected laboratory and three other Orange County locations and confiscated large quantities of drugs, some of them unidentified, apparent manufacturing equipment and records.

Police said that Jeffrey Allen Feliciano, 36, majority owner of Fountain Valley Research, the suspected storefront laboratory, characterized the drug he allegedly supplied to players as “rather exotic compared to domestic steroids,” and told them that it came from East Germany.

The bottle that started the investigation was identified by authorities as “Bolasterone (which) was manufactured as a steroid in the 1950s . . . (and) taken off the market because of problems it caused to a human’s liver and is no longer being marketed in the United States,” according to the search warrant affidavit.

No charges have been filed yet. Authorities said Thursday that it may be two weeks or longer before they have tested and identified the various confiscated drugs and are able to determine if crimes have been committed and, if so, by whom.

But in documents filed Thursday in connection with last week’s searches, Fullerton police said they suspect a conspiracy among Feliciano of Fountain Valley, Dr. Val Warhaft, 34, of Irvine, Fullerton College football player James Guy Joseph, Shayne Ganz of Fountain Valley and others.

Feliciano was listed as 96% owner of Fountain Valley Research, 17229 Newhope Ave., Fountain Valley, where authorities suspect the drug was illegally manufactured, then shipped to Northern California. Michael Pycior, 19, of Fountain Valley and Warhaft also were listed as owners of the firm.

Warrants Served in San Jose

Authorities said this week that they believe the anabolic steroids that allegedly originated in Fountain Valley were shipped to “several states” via the San Jose area, where FBI agents simultaneously served search warrants Jan. 10.

Anabolic steroids are illegal to obtain or dispense without a prescription and have not been authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use in enhancing athletic preformance. However, the drugs have come into wide use via a black market among weight lifters, football players and other athletes, authorities said.

Some physicians believe steroids can cause such side effects as heart disease, liver disease, arrested growth in juveniles, reduced fertility, swelling of the breast in males and abnormal hair growth in women.

Various drugs were seized in last week’s raids, including minor tranquilizers, pain-killers and heart medications.

Dr. Bob Goldman, a Chicago physician who is recognized as an expert on anabolic steroid abuse, said the medications are the kinds frequently used by body builders who are also taking anabolic steroids.

Tranquilizers Needed

Anabolic steroid users become extremely anxious and nervous and need tranquilizers, such as Valium, to rest, Goldman said. Pain-killers are taken to deaden the pain that body builders experience from tearing muscle tissue, he said, and cardiac drugs are used to slow the heart rate, which is increased by anabolic steroids.

In the court papers filed Thursday, authorities said Feliciano would require persons to have blood and urine tests before receiving the drug. A police undercover informant had the tests but never received the drug because of “problems” with his test, authorities said.

At one point, police quote an unnamed informant who said Fullerton assistant football coach Jeff “Jespersen advised the informant he was totally against the use of steroids but feels that the use of steroids should be monitored by him rather than having the players try to get it someplace else off the street.”

Jespersen declined to comment.

Hal Sherbeck, Fullerton’s coach for the last 25 years, said: “Jeff is innocent. His ethics are as high as mine or anyone else’s. He didn’t do anything illegal.

‘He Didn’t Do Anything’

“I know what kind of person he is, what he is made of, and I know he didn’t do anything that was against the law or that might hurt players,” Sherbeck said. “The only thing he might have been guilty of is being gullible.”

Jespersen recently completed his sixth year as an assistant defensive coach at Fullerton College. Before that he was head coach at Tustin High School and at Idaho Falls High School in Idaho.

State Department of Health Services officials said Feliciano is not licensed to practice medicine or prescribe the drug, and Fountain Valley Research is not licensed to manufacture the drug. But officials concede that state law permits anabolic steroids to be prescribed by a physician, even when used to enhance athletic performance.

Investigators said it was unknown Thursday whether Dr. Warhaft had written prescriptions for the drug.

But in tape-recorded conversations with an undercover reserve police officer, Feliciano allegedly said that “doctors don’t write prescriptions for any of the medications . . . (but that) the doctors allow him to monitor the program and the doctors monitor the blood chemistries,” according to the affidavit.

Times staff writers Guy Gruppie and Chris Dufresne contributed to this story.