Doctor Pleads Guilty in Illegal Steroids Case
A Los Angeles physician with an office in Santa Ana pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to a felony count of conspiring to receive illegal steroids.
According to Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark A. Byrne, Dr. Walter F. Jekot, 51, of Los Angeles agreed to plead guilty to the charge in exchange for a sentence with a five-year maximum and dismissal of 28 related charges.
The government alleges that Jekot used his three offices, in San Fernando, West Hollywood and Santa Ana, to obtain anabolic steroids and human growth hormones from both legitimate and illegal sources.
The Jekot Health Center, on Hemlock Way in Santa Ana, was open for business Thursday.
Jekot admitted to receiving foreign-made anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs that are not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration for use in this country.
Jekot’s attorney, Victor Sherman, said Thursday that his client pleaded guilty only to the conspiracy charge in regard to two incidents in 1985 and 1986 and denies illegally distributing the drugs. Sherman said that Jekot’s medical practice includes treating AIDS patients with steroids and that he had obtained the foreign-made steroids as a part of his treatment.
“Those were much better, and he was attempting to determine whether they were more effective” for treating patients than steroids approved for treatment here, Sherman said.
Jekot is to be sentenced September in district court.
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