Judge Delays Release of British Ex-Olympian

The proposed release of David Jenkins, the former British Olympian who has served six months of a seven-year sentence for selling black-market steroids to athletes, was delayed Friday by a federal judge in San Diego when the judge learned that the prosecutor had intercepted the judge’s mail.

U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving demanded an explanation, calling the removal of a letter from his courthouse mailbox “shocking, unprofessional and intolerable to the court, with potentially serious consequences.”

The judge’s criticism was directed at Phillip Halpern, an assistant U.S. attorney who persuaded a court clerk to remove the letter written by Kenneth Ingleby, a U.S. Customs Service official who opposed reduction of Jenkins’ prison term.

Irving also accused the prosecutor of “trading on the friendship” of clerk Chris Gibson, who received a thank-you note from Halpern. The note told Gibson she could throw away the letter because Ingleby had authorized the disposal.

Halpern apologized to the court but insisted he was merely trying to prevent direct communication between an agency head and a judge, a communication which is illegal according to the U.S. Code on Procedures.

Jenkins, a U.S. resident, will remain in Boron Federal Prison in the Mojave Desert until Irving renders his decision.