Story by Eric.This is the 46th submission in a long series about Marion Jones, a former elite sprinter who won (stole) honour and earned (stole) endorsements, fame and fortune by method of fraud. This story is being told in its entirety, because Marion Jones is unable to do it herself.
This section is titled, "'Bad company', said the thief, as he went to the gallows between the hangman and the monk."
Marion Jones's attorney, Joseph Burton made a condemning statement after C.J. Hunter had been discovered to have spoken with the Federal authorities, but one which relies on their own cheat, Trevor Graham, as a truth-teller to give their claim credence.
“Fortunately, Hunter's efforts to exact his revenge by telling lies to the government are directly contradicted by the statements made to the government investigators of Marion Jones’s former coach, who has supported everything Marion has said all along - that she never used performance enhancing drugs.”[1]
Federal authorities had not stated that C.J. Hunter made any significant inaccuracies in his multiple statements to them made on different occasions. They had neither arrested him nor accused him of making statements under oath which were false or wildly inaccurate against the claims and evidences they have collected to make such an evaluation.
U.S. Federal Rules of Evidence listed in Article VI, Rule 613(b) state that “extrinsic evidence of a prior inconsistent statement by a witness is not admissible unless the witness is afforded an opportunity to explain or deny the same and the opposite party is afforded an opportunity to interrogate the witness thereon, or the interests of justice otherwise require.”[2]
Had Burton or any other claimant stating that Hunter was inconsistent in his testimony made any legal move of protest to the courts or to the authorities, or was the extent of their protest a general statement of opinion?
Considering they knew their client was guilty, they made no such move to the courts.
Did they follow through with their statement and make an appeal to the legal system to either charge Hunter with lying to authorities or to have any – and all – statements he made on behalf of Marion Jones inadmissible should they have come to light in a trial setting?
They did no such thing.
Even had this earlier gone to trial, would they have found substantial evidence to the contrary of what Hunter had stated – evidence which would confirm the facts as they saw them, namely of him being a liar?
No. Marion Jones later proved that what Conte – and, now Hunter – had stated was, indeed, true to a certain extent – an extent she wanted to stretch (or limit) you to understand.
One indisputable fact is certain, however: C.J. Hunter was sanctioned for drugs-usage.
It was stated that Hunter had more than 1.000 times the legal limit of nandrolone in his urine during one of four failed drugs tests leading up to the Olympic Games in Sydney – a failure he and Conte, a close friend at the time, blamed on having received bad nutritional supplements.
Those who held Marion Jones – the two-time World Champion 100m sprinter – on her pedestal leading up to the Olympic Games would have been unable to acquiesce to contending statements that bad company with C.J. Hunter, the-husband, had a negative or adulterated affect on Marion Jones. They persuaded themselves that Marion Jones’s placid emotional state of mind at the Olympic Games was testimony of her strong resolve for solidarity between her goals and her drive – demonstrating that whatever C.J. Hunter was doing in his private time had nothing to do with Marion Jones.
In his statement to the agents, Hunter said Jones’ use of banned substances dated at least from the ramp-up to the Mount San Antonio College relays in
Those who see the big picture here – alert persons who are able to grasp the concept of positive and negative image and coalition bonds having equal and opposite reactions on each other – are able to judiciously conclude that the fraternity link Marion Jones shared with C.J. Hunter had damaging effects on Marion Jones, but not without Marion Jones’s unreserved knowledge.
Black Athlete held an interview with C.J. Hunter at his home in August, 2004. Their accounts of the Hunter-Jones relationship included Hunter’s Raleigh-based lawyers, Angela and Rusty DeMent, barely permitting Hunter to answer questions about Marion Jones, a sign, they stated, of just how complicated his role in the ongoing BALCO investigation was. [4]
The non-disclosure agreement included in the disassociation between Cottrell Hunter III and Marion Jones in addition to the tough lawyer talk from the Hunter attorneys speculatively leads a panel of non-participants to question just what was being hidden from the public, and why.
Chatham County public records reveal that Marion Jones and Hunter signed deed for Lot 10 Willowbend Plantation in Williams Township on 2000-February-23 in the amount of $1.690.000. Hunter would subsequently name Marion Jones as grantee of that lot in
Marion Jones would consequently lose the home to foreclosure.
Marion Jones’s attorneys had been quick to point out discrepancies where they may have appeared to the naked, un-trained eye to be failure points with USADA’s claims against Marion Jones. They had also been very quick to provide documents which supported their claims when other documents – or more than “essence of statements” – existed according to unidentified news sources.
“Would people stand for that? Is it fair to take away someone's livelihood and reputation based on that lack of quality evidence? Over all, the documents we've been shown would not constitute proof under any standard in any court, civil or criminal, in the land.” [5]
This response from Marion Jones’s attorneys – who questioned the evidence brought forth by USADA – begs two questions: If it was not “over all” a conclusive proof, was it selectively representative of drugs usage? If USADA had a lack of “quality evidence”, what substantiation had Marion Jones’s team produced which could undeniably shatter all doubt, speculation, questioning and deliberation in the matter of USADA’s Suspicion of Marion Jones?
Marion Jones’s attorneys left open a legal talk which enabled one to rationalise their statements as having loopholes, yet evidently, no one had taken Marion Jones’s attorneys to the bank on those words. Such statements provided no new facts, but merely asked the viewer to concede to inferences drawn by Marion Jones’s counsel from assumed facts. Marion Jones’s legal team have worked to lead one to believe that the opposition are a master of fiction, and they, the speakers of truth, are the masters of fact.
In having done so, and with Marion Jones having been proven to be a liar – with all her statements on the subject of innocence being matters of fiction, one shall not give credence to the defences made by her attorneys at any single, solitary point in her career – certainly not with the “A”-sample and “B”-sample fiasco they faced in 2006.
Her attorneys played this game of “who’s lying to whom?” again in retorting C.J. Hunter’s claims that Marion Jones took steroids.
“It is not right and potentially illegal.” [6]
According to her attorneys, Conte spread lies and started unfounded rumours about Marion Jones, and was he was sued. C.J. Hunter, according to the statement above – with the emphasis being placed on the word potential – did something they didn’t consider right, but was potentially legal. The only way they could have discounted Hunter as a potential witness is if they could have provided documented evidence that Hunter – who could have been convicted of a crime had he not been provided limited immunity – disclosed witness testimony which involved dishonesty or false statements.
Unlike the case against Conte, Marion Jones’s legal counsel had intended to have Hunter prosecuted for making such statements against her. Absent was the threat of a $25.000.000 lawsuit against him; only hard time in the big house to consider what he had stated stared him in the face.
“Since C.J. Hunter has lied to government officials, he also needs to be investigated, be subjected to a polygraph investigation and prosecuted for lying to federal investigators,” her attorney Joseph Burton said. [7]
Marion Jones proved that with the utmost of certainty.
However, Marion Jones’s attorneys stated that it was clear that someone – finger pointed at Hunter – was lying, with the polygraph test administration the determinant factor in the C.J. Hunter argument.
There were no bold declarations of her passing every drugs test ever administered to her, nor were there, as a matter of fact, any mention of Marion Jones having passed drugs tests whatsoever when discussion was centred on C.J. Hunter.
Nor did her attorneys clue us on to the fact that, following C.J. Hunter’s steroids positive in the summer of 2000, Marion Jones and Hunter filed and completed a Modification and Extension Agreement on 2001-February-22 which required six payments of $11.967,49 due on the 22nd day of each month concluding with 2001 August. Some of Marion Jones’s fans simply stated that she was following through on being a good wife and continued standing by her husband. I query as to why she engulfed herself in a larger debt pool if she had no desire to continue in the relationship – which, at that point was sans any BALCO entanglement.
That same summer – in 2000 – Marion Jones stuck by her husband’s side in
“It made us realize that we have to rely on our families even that much more,” she says. “We realized that the only persons we can truly trust in this world is each other and our families. That realization made a big difference between C.J. and me.”[9]
There is a compelling personal and/or prescribed reason Hunter has remained quiet on his Grand Jury – and subsequent Federal agent – testimony, and has been adamant about wanting his life – now in limbo – to be left alone. His ex-wife, Marion Jones, has had attorneys who’ve stated that he was embittered, and had an axe to grind. Oddly enough, I have never heard C.J. Hunter publicly state negative comments about Marion Jones.
Moreover, I have not heard C.J. Hunter yet come out in the open and say, “See, I told you so!” following Marion Jones’s confession.
One thing Hunter had said, however – to a fault, is that a polygraph test – as was the case with Graham and Marion Jones in their defences of themselves – would vindicate him against Marion Jones counter-accusations of him being a liar, and provide some credibility to where there is visibly – at first glance – zero to none existent.
Marion Jones’s connection failures – her failure to connect the dots, that is – continued past Trevor Graham, Victor Conte and C.J. Hunter.
Marion Jones travelled to Toronto to begin working with Charlie Francis in January 2003, before she abruptly ended the association with the man known as “Charlie the Chemist” the following month following widespread, international criticism from the international athletics federation, European meet directors, and foremost Nike, which had plans for a multi-million dollar advertising campaign centred on her lead-up to the 2004 Olympic, and had paid her a reported $3.000.000 yearly [10] to endorse its products.
“Things have been laid on the line to Marion,” said a senior source at Nike. “If she doesn't get out now then it's going to be too late for her and us.”[11]
(As it would turn out, Marion Jones would not qualify for any sprint event for the 2004 Olympic Games, qualifying only in the long jump, and Nike ended its relationship with her following her disappointing showing).
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