Vince, George Sahara, Ahrar discussed on Talk Is Jericho
Automatic TRANSCRIPT
Promo code Jericho. So let's back up a bit as far as how this all took place. And almost talk about it for people who haven't seen the show who don't know much about it. How did it get to this point in the first place? Obviously, more of a nutshell version weight. Yeah, I mean, the short thing is it's doctor George Sahara in a sign by the athletic commission, was backstage at WWE events for years, and he was handing out steroids to wrestlers who would get line for them along with other drugs. And he landed on the radar of government officials. It was a time when steroids had become the classification legally had changed in terms of it was for a doctor to give steroids for wrestlers. And so the government was looking to, I mean, the army was the government's looking for someone to make an example out of. And they went after Vince McMahon. The idea was he distributed steroids tolko directly. That was a charge. And that he also was conspiring to distribute steroids within the company. The prosecution had this big memo internally that they blew up and closing arguments that showed that they were aware of doctors ahrar and the government looking into them. That's what roughly a 32nd nutshell. Dave, what granular nuanced yet to that? So the things you have, the law changed and zorian was actually put on trial and it was like almost a test case. And they had him dead to rights, and he was convicted. He was distributing steroids to a number of WWE wrestlers. And also to a strength coach, which is what happened was that they got a bill done who was a good friend of a restaurant named Steve muslin, where Steve Travis, as he was known in WWE, Sue Travis put him in touch with sorian and he had believe he was a track coach of high school kids who was getting steroids for his team, right? So and sore and they had like they wired done to go to sorian and Jordan just acted like a drug doctor. It's like, you know, you give me the cash. I'll give you the drugs. You know, I mean, they have that on tape. And so then they started investigating Saroyan and found the connection to all the wrestlers. And so the hoarding trial goes on to Lorraine's convicted and then film mushnik is writing about it and in the New York papers and everything. And yes, yes. Then start steroid testing and mushrooms writing more and more stuff. And then the eastern district just the Justice Department of the eastern district looked into it and was sort of like let's go after Vince and it was not just on those charges, but the other charges couldn't stick. So it ended up being just on the steroid charges. And, you know, there were certain things that happened and the key one, you know, in the difference in the long run, the difference between the guilty and the not guilty is the fact that a government official tipped off Linda McMahon and told her that the soaring guy's hot, we're investigating him. And so they cut all ties with Saharan. Because if that had not happened, they would not have cut ties with the warrior. And there was enough that happened where I'm pretty sure that Vince this would have been found guilty because I guess the key thing in the case, the key thing in the case is that there was a woman named Anita scales who was in charge of booking doctors for the, for the live shows. Dorian was assigned by the Pennsylvania state, by the Pennsylvania athletic commission. And then the commission changed its bylaws and said, okay, we're not going to be assigning the doctors anymore. You know, you wrestling and boxing river. You pick your own doctor at ringside. We're not going to send a doctor. So when they would go to eastern western Pennsylvania, the Allentown area, Hershey area. So we're going to have been the doctor going back to the 70s, I think, maybe even earlier. The 70s. And then you just scales knew about the horns. Horn was not a guy that people didn't know about it in wrestling, everybody knew, oh yeah, go to WWE. I mean, everybody would go to WWE, they'd get 20 pounds bigger. You know, and more muscular. And so you go to WWE go to zahari and he hooks you up and you get a great body because, you know, from brutal San martino to superstar Graham and everyone in between, WWE had always been built on these 260 pound big, strong looking dudes. And so that's what they wanted at their main events. So scales knew that Zoran was a bad guy and was a dealer and wanted to cut all ties with him. So she basically called got her own doctor for that show. And then Patterson and Jay strongbow called her up and was just like, you got a book to hurry and you got a bookstore and you know, for when we go into the cities and she said, no, I'm not going to do it. And then she got the word from actually she went to Linda McMahon and went to Linda and goes, these guys are harassing me. They want me to book sore and I don't want to book so orient and Linda goes, do what pat says. So she told by Linda, you know, she books zahari and for the next date in Hershey. And they all know and there's no way in a trial that you could save interest didn't have knowledge because Vince was one of the guys who was a client of zorian Vince would be on the days of they would go there, Vince would get his stuff from sorian too. So, Vince can not say, I didn't know. So it would be Vince hiring a guy who he fully knows his distributing steroids and downers and other things to pro wrestlers. And some of the downers were also controlled substances. It wasn't just the steroids. The hoarding trial was built on. And so if he had actually been hired and worked a show, I think there's a really good chance that Vince would have been found guilty of conspiracy, but before the show, when he gets the tip off and Linda calls up a new scales and goes, get rid of zahara, we got to cut all ties with the orient. So there's a way to actually never work that even that very first show. And that was the difference. One trial note too. When the jury wasn't present, a lot of the focus between the prosecution and defense was on the wording of the judge's instructions to the jury. And the prosecutor Sean O'Shea cited cases were defendants, did not need to know all the details of a conspiracy. As long as he knew of its existence, and he knowingly joined and participated in it. And the judge was real combative. He said, I thought you would have a stronger case about earlier. You should have had a stronger case. You told me you would about on the two distribution counts, and then he ended up throwing them up, but the judge said mere knowledge of a conspiracy is insufficient for a conviction. You can know a criminal without being one. And the judge was away from the jury saying he was going to tell in jury instructions. He was going to say proof beyond a reasonable doubt so often that the jury would be sick of hearing it. And so part of why there was confidence that jury come back, not guilty as courtroom observers were seeing the judge's attitude towards this case and what his instructions to the jury were going to be. And he was really going to emphasize the aspects where the judge felt the prosecution came up short. Talk is Jericho's supported by Steven singer jewelers. Steven is giving every other jeweler out there another.