Julie Farby
Columbia, SC, July 17 (AHN) – Dr. James Shortt, the former South Carolina physician who pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally prescribe steroids to NFL players was sentenced Monday to one year and one day in prison.
Prosecutors say current and former members of the Carolina Panthers were some of Shortt’s patients, with Dr. Shortt pleading guilty in March to one federal count of conspiracy to distribute anabolic steroids and human growth hormone.
Chief U.S. District Judge Joe Anderson ordered Shortt to pay the minimum fine, $500, and a $100 special assessment, as well as serve two years on supervised release.
The maximum sentence for the charge was five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. But as part of the plea deal, prosecutors dropped 42 other counts against Shortt.
The South Carolina Board of Medical Examiners revoked Shortt’s medical license in May.
In an unrelated case, Shortt also faces a state criminal investigation in the March 2004 death of a woman who died after receiving intravenous hydrogen peroxide he claimed would help her multiple sclerosis. Shortt has been sued by the family of Katherine Bibeau, whose death has been ruled a homicide.
