For lying to investigators about using illegal performance-enhancing drugs, along with participating in a check-fraud scheme, former track great Marion Jones was sentenced to six months in prison.
Jones pleaded for leniency, but the judge said the actions came years apart, and so "I don't think the criminal conduct can be written off as a momentary lapse of judgment or a one-time mistake, but instead a repetition of an attempt to break the law."
Jones, who has two sons, made her case for leniency based on that, but the judge implied that he would have given her a much stiffer sentence if if wasn't for her sons, along with taking responsibility for her actions.
U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas also said he had doubts that Jones was being honest in saying she wasn't aware that she was taking steroids until after she had ceased taking them. His line of thinking was there is no way she couldn't have known with the measuring of performance an athlete partakes in; the boost in performance would have been known almost immediately.
"I'm very disappointed today," Jones told reporters outside court. "But as I stood in front of all of you for years in victory, I stand in front of you today. I stand for what is right. I respect the judge's order and I truly hope that people will learn from my mistakes."
Along with the prison sentence, Jones will be required to serve 400 hours of community service each year for two years after her release.
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