Local Doctor Caught In Steroid Scandal
Elissa Jarvis, Lead Reporter Tuesday, November 22, 2011
In 2007 the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) raided the offices of Applied Pharmacy Services (APS) in Mobile, Alabama. A 198 count indictment alleges that twelve defendants illegally dispensed steroids to hundreds of users across the country including teenagers and professional athletes. Furthermore, the indictment charges several defendants with money laundering.
Among the indicted were James Abernathy and Daniel Riedel who ran Abernathy Longevity systems in Colorado Springs. Neither of them, however, are medical doctors. Abernathy and Riedel used a local Myrtle Beach doctor, Pamela Pyle (pictured below), to write prescriptions for Abernathy’s clients. Abernathy would consult with a client and take a blood sample; he would then decide what steroids the client needed and he or Riedel would then email Pyle the list of drugs and dosages needed. Mrs. Pyle would then fax back the prescription to Abernathy and Riedel who would then fax it to APS. APS would then fill Pyle’s prescriptions and ship them either to the clients or to Abernathy. Pyle never actually saw any of Abernathy’s clients.
Mrs. Pyle has maintained her innocence arguing that she did not know it was illegal to sell steroids or that it was illegal to write prescriptions for patients she never met. Furthermore, she argued that she was not selling steroids to athletes but to old men interested in anti-aging. We, however, have obtained a list of the 18 clients she wrote prescriptions for which included three men ages 36, 38 and 39 respectively, as well as several men in their early 40s. Does the average male in his late 30s and early 40's seek steroids illegally through the mail in unmarked packages for anti-aging? I consider it unlikely.
An unnamed source has indicated that one or more of these clients are, in fact, athletes. As we have been unable to corroborate our source’s information with three or more other witnesses involved in the case, for now, we are choosing only to disclose the initials of those named in the court order. A list of those patients can be found by clicking on this link.
The steroids Pyle prescribed included Trenbolone, Oxymethlone and Nandrolone all of which are used by athletes to promote muscle growth. Several professional athletes have been named in connection with Applied Pharmacy Services including Jose Canseco, Kurt Angle and Shane Carwin. Pyle, for her part, cooperated with the DEA investigation and turned over evidence indicting her former collaborators and has testified at their trials and at APS shareholder A. Samuel Kelly’s trial. She was given a one year probation for her involvement with APS and had her medical license sanctioned.
Mrs. Pyle and her husband have recently been connected to the controversy concerning the removal of a beloved pastor at Beach Church. Since running those initial stories on Beach Church, the Pyle’s requested a restraining order be placed on Myrtle-Beach.com. A Judge denied the Pyle’s request stating that it was protected by the first amendment.
Photocredit 1: http://blog.prorumors.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/jose_canseco.jpg
Photocredit 2: (Press Register/Mary Hattler) http://blog.al.com/live/2010/03/judge_grants_probation_to_doct.html
Previous Articles About the Pyle's: