Biogenesis Clinic Owner Sentenced

  The former owner of a medical clinic who posed as a doctor and illegally supplied steroid injections and other performance-enhancing drugs to professional baseball players and even high school athletes was sentenced Tuesday to four years in federal prison.

Anthony Bosch — who choked back tears in court and said the Coral Gables clinic was a legitimate business gone awry — sought a more lenient term because of his cooperation in the investigation, but U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles refused. "This defendant was the most culpable in this conspiracy," the judge said.

Prosecutors said Bosch could still get his sentence reduced through further cooperation, including potential trial testimony.

Gayles said Bosch falsely held himself out as a licensed medical doctor at his Biogenesis of America clinic, where he accepted thousands of dollars a month to provide steroid injections to players such as the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez and the Milwaukee Brewers' Ryan Braun. Most troubling, the judge said, was Bosch's injections of high school players in the Miami area. "He was the mastermind," he said. "He was the one who recruited others to assist him."

Miami U.S. Attorney Wifredo Ferrer said the message of the case is "cheating doesn't pay and individuals like Bosch, who distribute performance enhancing drugs to athletes and, more importantly, to our children, will be held accountable for their actions."

Bosch, 51, pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy to distribute testosterone, the sixth person charged in the Biogenesis case to do so. He and Rodriguez are expected to testify if the last two defendants — Rodriguez cousin Yuri Sucart and ex-University of Miami pitching coach Lazaro Collazo — go to trial as scheduled in early April.

MLB imposed a record season-long suspension last year on Rodriguez, one of 14 players penalized in the scandal. The Yankees say Rodriguez, 39, is no longer their third baseman.

MLB spokesman Pat Courtney declined to comment.

A few hours after Bosch's sentencing, Rodriguez issued a vague handwritten apology to fans saying he wants to "put this chapter behind me and play some ball."

Bosch, who's been undergoing treatment for cocaine addiction since his guilty plea, was joined by more than two dozen friends and relatives at his sentencing hearing. "I'm ashamed of myself. I'm remorseful," he said. "I can't put into words how sorry I am."

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