Two doctors plead guilty in steroid probe

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Two doctors pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges they helped distribute steroids in a Mobile-based investigation that grew from a wider probe of steroid use in professional baseball.

Dr. Kelly W. Tucker of Greeley, Colo., pleaded guilty to dispensing anabolic steroids outside the course of professional practice. Dr. Pamela Pyle, a Myrtle Beach, S.C., osteopath, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony for withholding information about illegal steroids prescriptions.

U.S. Chief District Judge Ginny Granade set sentencing for Nov. 24. Pyle faces up to three years in prison while Tucker faces up to five.

The two are among four doctors charged in an investigation of Mobile-based Applied Pharmacy Services, which was linked to steroid distribution in U.S. Sen. George Mitchell's report last year on steroid use in Major League Baseball. No one at the pharmacy has been charged, and no major sports figures have been named in the Mobile-based federal investigation.

The doctors are accused of signing prescriptions — sometimes without even seeing the patients — and faxing the orders to Applied Pharmacy, which shipped the drugs to the buyers, according to prosecutors.

In January, Dr. Scott A. Corliss pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony and has sentencing set for Oct. 29; and Dr. Kenneth M. Olds will enter his guilty plea on June 6 to the same charge as Tucker, attorneys said. Both also practice in Greeley.