SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- "Actor Sylvester Stallone pleaded guilty Tuesday to bringing vials of restricted muscle-building hormones into Australia and faces sentencing next week.
Lawyers for the 60-year-old star of the "Rocky" and "Rambo" movies entered the guilty pleas on behalf of the actor, who did not appear before Sydney's Downing Center Local Court.
"I made a terrible mistake, not because I was attempting to deceive anyone but I was simply ignorant to your official rules," Stallone said in a letter to Sydney's Local Court. "I feel terrible that my breach of the rules has set a poor example to members of the public, whose opinion I cherish dearly."
Stallone was accused of bringing banned substances into Australia after a customs search of his luggage during a Feb. 16 visit to Sydney revealed 48 vials of the human growth hormone product, Jintropin.
Three days later, Stallone threw four vials of the male hormone testosterone from his Sydney hotel room when customs officials arrived to search it, prosecutor David Agius told the court.
Human growth hormone, a naturally occurring substance that can be replicated synthetically and is used to build muscle mass, is considered a performance enhancing drug in Australia and it cannot be imported without a permit from the national drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The maximum penalty for bringing Jintropin into Australia illegally is a fine of $91,500 and five years in prison, but Stallone faces a maximum penalty of just $18,000 on each of the two charges because the matter is being heard by a local, not federal, court.
Deputy Chief Magistrate Paul Cloran said Stallone would be sentenced on Monday next week.
Stallone's lawyer Phillip Boulten said the actor should be spared a criminal conviction, saying Stallone took the hormones for medical reasons that he did not specify..."
Uh huh. Medical reasons. Such as wanting 3% body-fat. This pisses me off because as an old acquaintance it would have been nice to have this frickin asswipe age along with us. The hair transplants, the facial peels, the drugs, good Lord but the kid was born in Hell's Kitchen. And don't tell me that 30 years of steroids hasn't left him with shriveled nutmegs.
Oh yeah, and the hotel all of the major stars stay at is in Double Bay, a suburb of Sydney. It's where that rock star off'd himself a few years back. I was window shopping one day when this guy who looked familiar walked passed, and he stopped for a moment upon hearing my NY accent. "Where can I get a real breakfast?" Seinfeld asked. "Tribeca," I answered. "Nowheres here thats for sure."
No comments:
Post a Comment