THOUSAND OAKS : Prosecutor Misses Steroids Case Date

Lawrence Wood was supposed to be arraigned Friday in Ventura County Municipal Court on charges of possession of steroids and possession of steroids for sale, but nobody showed up to prosecute him.

Last weekend, authorities claimed to have made the largest seizure of steroids in the county’s history at Wood’s Thousand Oaks residence, and they portrayed Wood as a major distributor of the illegal drug.

Wood’s attorney, George Elkin, said Saturday that his client apparently is still under investigation, but the case has been handed over to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. No officials of the Food and Drug Administration or the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department involved in the arrest could be reached for comment Saturday.

Meanwhile, Elkin said, a Municipal Court judge has discharged the case, meaning no charges are pending against Wood. He had been free on his own recognizance since his arrest Dec. 15.

“If any action is taken, it will be taken by federal authorities,” Elkin said. But he said investigators “are going to be disappointed to learn that what they got is not what they thought they got” when they raided Wood’s home.

He said most of what investigators described as 250,000 doses of steroids--a performance-enhancing drug used by some athletes--were actually vitamins that Wood markets legally through a mail-order business. Elkin said Wood had only one bottle of steroids, which he said were prescribed by a doctor for a knee injury.

Elkin said a chemical compound called gamma hydroxy butyrate also was seized at Wood’s residence and said the FDA banned distribution of the substance last month. But he said Wood was using the compound in longevity research, not distributing it.