GRIM
05-13-2008, 11:04 AM
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/05/11/news/mtregional/znews07.txt
Second man receives probation in steroids case
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
U.S. District Judge Don Molloy found himself with a quandary Friday morning.
Sitting before him was Dana Fiscus, a man accused of taking part in a conspiracy to sell steroids imported from China. Absent any other factors, Molloy would likely have sentenced Fiscus to two years in prison.
But those other factors were both present and troubling. The principal one was Jimmy Ray Jones, who is the 39-year-old Fiscus' stepfather. Jones, a military veteran who served in Vietnam, sat before Molloy on Thursday, guilty of the same conspiracy.
Unlike Fiscus, however, Jones started the steroid ring. He made most of the money selling drugs bought in China and resold over the Internet.
If anyone was going to get prison in the case, it should have been the 61-year-old Jones.
And yet on Thursday, Molloy, for a host of reasons, placed Jones on probation for five years.
I think this is the last that the U.S. attorney's office or this court will see of Jimmy Ray Jones, Molloy said Thursday.
Molloy gave Jones probation for a handful of reasons, but primarily because Jones suffers physical and mental health problems, some related to his military service. He needs a kidney removed, has a tumor and suffers from post-traumatic disorder.
Jones has also played a significant role in the success of Missoula's Alcoholics Anonymous program, Molloy noted.
An ordinary person, Molloy said, would likely have gotten a prison sentence, but Jones was not that person.
Then came Friday.
And now I have an ordinary man, Molloy mused.
Only Fiscus wasn't exactly ordinary, either, a circumstance Molloy mentioned as he thought out loud about an appropriate sentence for Fiscus.
I find this to be a very difficult case, the judge said.
As he talked himself into Fiscus' sentence, Molloy made clear not just his dilemma, but that faced by all judges - the difficult balance of the requirements of the law and the need for justice versus the unique circumstances of defendants, with their families, personal problems, jobs and futures.
I guess that's what the high pay is for, Molloy said.
Dana Fiscus is a husband, a father, a nurse. He's also had a history of trouble with prescription drugs. A stint in prison would likely cost him his job, his attorney, John Smith, told Molloy.
Fiscus, who is married to a Missoula police officer, told Molloy he'd blown it by helping his stepfather with selling steroids. He owned up to his past problems with opiates. He swore he'd stay clean.
I known that I'll stay clean, he told the judge. I know that I'll never be here again.
With that, Molloy gave Fiscus essentially the same sentence he gave Jones - five years of probation and six months' house arrest.
The judge said that while he couldn't be sure he was doing the right thing, the probationary sentence essentially offered him a do-over. Should Fiscus - or Jones, for that matter - stumble again, they will be back in front of Molloy, facing prison time.
If you mess up, I won't have to struggle, Molloy told Fiscus.
Second man receives probation in steroids case
By MICHAEL MOORE of the Missoulian
U.S. District Judge Don Molloy found himself with a quandary Friday morning.
Sitting before him was Dana Fiscus, a man accused of taking part in a conspiracy to sell steroids imported from China. Absent any other factors, Molloy would likely have sentenced Fiscus to two years in prison.
But those other factors were both present and troubling. The principal one was Jimmy Ray Jones, who is the 39-year-old Fiscus' stepfather. Jones, a military veteran who served in Vietnam, sat before Molloy on Thursday, guilty of the same conspiracy.
Unlike Fiscus, however, Jones started the steroid ring. He made most of the money selling drugs bought in China and resold over the Internet.
If anyone was going to get prison in the case, it should have been the 61-year-old Jones.
And yet on Thursday, Molloy, for a host of reasons, placed Jones on probation for five years.
I think this is the last that the U.S. attorney's office or this court will see of Jimmy Ray Jones, Molloy said Thursday.
Molloy gave Jones probation for a handful of reasons, but primarily because Jones suffers physical and mental health problems, some related to his military service. He needs a kidney removed, has a tumor and suffers from post-traumatic disorder.
Jones has also played a significant role in the success of Missoula's Alcoholics Anonymous program, Molloy noted.
An ordinary person, Molloy said, would likely have gotten a prison sentence, but Jones was not that person.
Then came Friday.
And now I have an ordinary man, Molloy mused.
Only Fiscus wasn't exactly ordinary, either, a circumstance Molloy mentioned as he thought out loud about an appropriate sentence for Fiscus.
I find this to be a very difficult case, the judge said.
As he talked himself into Fiscus' sentence, Molloy made clear not just his dilemma, but that faced by all judges - the difficult balance of the requirements of the law and the need for justice versus the unique circumstances of defendants, with their families, personal problems, jobs and futures.
I guess that's what the high pay is for, Molloy said.
Dana Fiscus is a husband, a father, a nurse. He's also had a history of trouble with prescription drugs. A stint in prison would likely cost him his job, his attorney, John Smith, told Molloy.
Fiscus, who is married to a Missoula police officer, told Molloy he'd blown it by helping his stepfather with selling steroids. He owned up to his past problems with opiates. He swore he'd stay clean.
I known that I'll stay clean, he told the judge. I know that I'll never be here again.
With that, Molloy gave Fiscus essentially the same sentence he gave Jones - five years of probation and six months' house arrest.
The judge said that while he couldn't be sure he was doing the right thing, the probationary sentence essentially offered him a do-over. Should Fiscus - or Jones, for that matter - stumble again, they will be back in front of Molloy, facing prison time.
If you mess up, I won't have to struggle, Molloy told Fiscus.