Alex Rodriguez Never in Buffalo For Meeting With FedsPosted By: Collin Bishop
Calvin Barry
BUFFALO, N.Y. - Yankees Slugger Alex Rodriguez said he never met with federal agents in Buffalo Friday, even though he was initially scheduled to do so.
Rodriguez was scheduled to meet today with federal investigators in Buffalo about his treatment from Canadian physician Dr. Anthony Galea last year. However, no one saw the baseball player in the Western New York area and was later spotted back at training camp in Florida.According to the Associated Press, when Rodriguez arrived at the Yankees' spring training complex, he did so without giving any indication if he met with federal agents.
The Yankees third basemen later said after batting practice at spring training there was no meeting, and that he and his lawyers are still working with federal authorities on scheduling. Rodriguez said he hopes to cooperate before opening day on April 4.
He also says he will meet with Major League Baseball soon.
U.S. Attorney William Hochul will not comment about the scheduled meeting with the New York Yankees star player.
Hochul told 2 On Your Side, "We don't have any comment on pending investigations and I can't confirm any aspect of that particular inquiry."
Dr. Anthony Galea is the physician at the center of drug investigations in Canada and the U.S. that have sent American federal agents trooping down to spring training to question ball players.
Galea says his treatment of Rodriguez consisted of prescribing anti-inflammatories after the Yankees slugger underwent hip surgery.
The case was blown wide open during an incident in Buffalo last September, when customs agents at the Peace Bridge stopped a Canadian woman who, they said, was illegally transporting human growth hormone and other controlled substances into the United States. The woman was Dr. Galea's assistant. Canadian authorities later charged Dr. Galea with smuggling.
Galea told The Associated Press recently that when athletes are subpoenaed they will have to tell the truth and he will be cleared.
Galea acknowledges taking human growth hormone, and to prescribing it for patients over 40, though he insists he's never given it to athletes.
On Friday, 2 On Your Side visited Toronto to interview the lawyer representing Dr. Galea's former assistant. Attorney Calvin Barry said his client is overwhelmed by the situation, and that she is cooperating with U.S. Federal Investigators in hope that the smuggling charges against her will be dropped.
REPORTER: When your client was cooperating with federal authorities in the United States, did she mention Alex Rodriguez's name? Did it come up at all?
BARRY: I can't comment again because the investigation is ongoing. I can tell you that she waived her Miranda Rights. She was fully cooperative. She turned over a computer. She turned over her cell phone, and they went and spoke to her some time after about certain other emails and other information that went back and forth about various athletes, staff at the clinic in Toronto, and some of the communications she had - work related.
REPORTER: So she told federal investigators what big-name athletes were being treated by Dr Galea?
BARRY: Yeah, names were mentioned because it was all on the computer because it was business computer.
Barry would not reveal which names his client provided to authorities.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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