U.S. Told to Return Most Records of Drug-Test Lab

Federal prosecutors have been ordered to return nearly all of the drug-testing results and samples of major league baseball players that were seized from a drug-testing lab, a high-ranking baseball official said Friday.

Internal Revenue Service agents served a search warrant and took the records April 8, a day after the Major League Baseball Players Assn. filed a motion to quash the subpoenas. The union then filed a motion in federal court to have the records and urine samples returned.

The court ordered the records and samples returned, except for those involving the players subpoenaed by a federal grand jury investigating illegal steroid distribution, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The New York Daily News first reported the decision Friday.

Quest Diagnostics spokesman Gary Samuels could not contact his company’s lawyers late Friday and did not know about any decision. IRS spokesman Mark Lessler said he could not comment.

Michael Weiner, the union’s general counsel, and Rob Manfred, baseball’s top labor lawyer, both declined comment, citing the court’s decision to keep the proceedings about the records sealed.