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Olympian Montgomery, former boyfriend of Marion Jones, gets nearly 4 years for check fraud
 Olympian Tim Montgomery had
everything he ever wanted. Once known as the "world's fastest man,"
Montgomery won a silver medal in the 400 relay at the 1996 Olympics and
gold in the same event in 2000. In 2002, he set a record of 9.78
seconds in the 100-meter dash. "I've stood on top of the mountain," he
said. But Montgomery's once-celebrated life has been on a downward
spiral for years after a spate of legal problems. Now, he said, he's
rooming with murderers and pedophiles in a Virginia jail.
The
world record, and all his other performances after March 31, 2001, were
wiped from the books, and he was banned from track for two years, for
doping linked to the investigation of BALCO, the lab at the center of a
steroid scandal in sports. Montgomery never tested positive for drugs,
but he retired after the ban was imposed.
And on Friday, a federal judge sentenced the former track star to
nearly four years in prison for dealing in bad checks.
"The gold medal, all those people cheering, that was part of another
world," he said. "In jail, my status is gone."
Judge Kenneth Karas also warned Montgomery, 33, that the evidence
against him "does not appear to be flimsy" in an ongoing case in
Virginia, where he is accused of selling heroin. A conviction there
would carry a minimum mandatory five-year sentence. Montgomery, wearing
a white T-shirt and baggy pants, lamented the turns his life has taken
as he asked the judge for leniency just before the 46-month sentence
was imposed.
Montgomery told the judge he had let other people run his life, right
down to deciding what to eat for breakfast. And his lawyer, Timothy
Heaphy, said Montgomery had been led astray by, among others, track
superstar Marion Jones. Jones, who had a son with Montgomery, is
serving her own 6-month prison term for lying about Montgomery's
involvement in the check scam and about her use of
performance-enhancing drugs.
The check case also ensnared Montgomery's former coach, gold medalist
Steve Riddick, and agent, Charles Wells. Both pleaded guilty.
But the judge said others were not to blame in the check case.
"`You should commit bank fraud' is not the same as `You should eat
Wheaties,'" Karas said. "There is not a single shred of evidence here
that this was anyone else's fault."
A small group of family and friends traveled to the sentencing from
South Carolina. Montgomery's father, Eddie Montgomery, asked the judge
for leniency, saying the supportive family would help keep his son
straight after prison.
Karas praised the family but said close family ties only showed that
Montgomery had no difficult childhood or broken home to blame for his
wrongdoing.
In 2006, Montgomery was charged in the check scheme, which prosecutors
said involved plans to deposit $5 million in stolen, altered or
counterfeit checks over three years at several banks. He pleaded guilty
in April 2007.
Four months later, according to the Virginia indictment, Montgomery was
dealing heroin. He allegedly met four times with a confidential
informant and sold a total of 111 grams of heroin for $8,450. He has
pleaded not guilty.
In deciding on the prison term, the judge said he would not hold the
new charges against Montgomery, since he has not been convicted. But
Karas sentenced him to the very top of the 37-46 month range suggested
by federal sentencing guidelines.
Montgomery hung his head as the sentence was pronounced. Besides the
prison time, Karas imposed five years of supervision after his release
and ordered him to pay back $375,000 to a bank he had cheated.
"I know this is a tough day for you," the judge said.
As Montgomery left the courtroom, he nodded and smiled at his relatives.
Outside court, Heaphy said he was sure Montgomery could have a
successful life after prison.
"He is amazingly determined, amazingly charismatic," the defense lawyer
said. "Here, he showed shockingly bad judgment."
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