Legal Shite

^{Marion Jones}

A roundup of cases both good and odd:

Case #1: A young woman in Kentucky was awarded $6.1M by a jury for being strip searched in the office of a McDonalds because of a hoax caller. In 2004, a spate of hoax calls were occuring at various McDonalds restaurants. It is unclear if these were local events or spread among the company's national chain. A Florida man was acguited and the calls have since then ceased.

The young woman in question, Louise Ogborn, 21, was forced to perform sexual acts in addition to the strip at the behest of the caller. The supposed grounds for the strip was because Ogborn had allegedly stolen from a customer. It is likely the caller would call describing a young woman with the chances there would be one that met or had some traits of his description. McDonalds was found liable for not notifying employees of the previous incidents therefore, raising awareness of possible recurrences.

Ogborn has stated that she may use some of the money to attend law school. McDonalds is looking at their Appeal Options.

Case #2: Marion Jones, the track star, racked up 3 Gold Medals at Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. Now, it appears her performance was enhanced by steroid use. Jones admits after years of denial that she used steroids from September 2000 to July 2001. She also says she realized she was being given "the clear" in November 2003 by her coach Trevor Graham. Jones plead guilty yesterday.

"The Clear" is a drug that constantly pops up. BALCO, a San Francisco area lab has been at the center of a steroid scandal in sports since 2003. Baseball Superstar and All-time Home Run record holder Barry Bonds has been implicated in using steroids for years. He is also believed to have taken "the clear" though he says his trainer gave it to him and called it flaxseed oil. Jones also claimed the same thing.

It seems that everyone will lay the trainer/coach out to dry. Athletes claim ignorance and act as though they just took whatever these people give them. So, they scapegoat their trainers. I don't believe that these people are that gullible. I feel sorry for the trainers who may or may not be involved in just slipping them some "flaxseed oil". Also, how stupid do they think we all are? Did Balco tell everyone to call it that if anyone asked?

The fallout from Jones may be massive. The Olympics will likely strip of her medals. This will likely result in the women's relay team losing their medals, too. So, this hurts not just Marion Jones but three (or more) other women! In addition, Ekaterini Thanou, a Greek Sprinter who won silver behind Marion Jones in the 100m at the Sydney Games, is also under investigation. If things keep going badly, the winner if the 100m in Sydney would be Tanya Lawrence of Jamaica.

More to come...