Gym Owner Says He’s No Steroid Dealer

Dick Gill, Uptown Gym co-owner who was arrested last week on charges of possessing anabolic steroids with intent to sell them, said he does not deal in steroids.

He said the steroids confiscated in a raid at his home were for his personal use. “We do not sell any,” he told The Times. “They’re totally wrong on that.”

Gill also was charged with possession of cocaine for sale.

“Big deal, a couple of bottles of ‘roids,” Gill said. “I can understand getting upset at the nose powder,” he added. He refused further comment on the charges.

Gill, 49, his wife, Carol, 45, and Rick Weaver, 45, the other gym co-owner, were arrested after authorities raided their homes and the gym last Thursday night. The Gills are bodybuilders.

Don Desmaretz, narcotics sergeant with the Whittier Police Department, said two bottles of steroids, two ounces of cocaine packaged in gram packets and eight small plastic bags of marijuana were found at the Gills’ home.

At the gym, two bottles of steroids, two grams of cocaine and a ledger indicating sales of steroids were found in Weaver’s gym bag, Desmaretz said. He said 10 bottles of steroids and an AK-47 assault rifle were found at the home of Weaver, a teacher at Alice M. Birney Elementary School in Pico Rivera.

The Gills and Weaver each posted $20,000 bail. Arraignment will be July 18.

“This was a cocaine investigation that had been going on for six months,” Desmaretz said. “We just happened to run into the steroids. It is the first steroid case we’ve ever done.”

He said Whittier police were assisted in the investigation by the FBI and the Downey Police Department.

Gill said that authorities “tore the place to pieces” during the raid at his home. “I showed them where the stuff was but they still tore up my home,” he said. “They treated me like I was Al Capone. A total nightmare. I’m going to have to get a lawyer and convince a judge I’m not a drug kingpin.”

The Uptown Gym caters to hard-core bodybuilders and athletes, including football player Tony Mandarich, the recent No. 1 draft choice of the Green Bay Packers.

In a May feature story on the gym, Gill told The Times that steroids are not sold at the gym, but he added that there are members of the gym who use and sell them.