Charges Against S.I. Doctor in Steroid Case

The Brooklyn DA's office charged a Staten Island doctor with illegally providing steroids to bodybuilders and weightlifters. Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes says that Dr. Richard Lucente, who has a clinic on S.I.,"wrote prescriptions to patients who had no medical need for them, then steered them to a pharmacy in return for $30,000 in kickbacks." That pharmacy is Lowen's in Bay Ridge; its pharmacist Joseph Rossi killed himself last year during the probe. Lucente ultimately made $500,000 from 220 clients. The Staten Island Advance notes that the death of bodybuilder Joseph Baglio is at the center of the case. Baglio was also heart transplant recipient and his heart gave out during a competition; "Prosecutors charge Lucente began prescribing Baglio steroids and human growth hormone in 2005, and continued to do so after Baglio's heart transplant in late 2006."