Officer guilty of illegal sales of hormone
By David Waite
Advertiser Courts Writer
A Honolulu police officer pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to selling human growth hormone illegally on five occasions between November 2002 and May 2003.
Eddie Belluomini, 33, faces up to five years in prison on each of the five felony counts when he is sentenced on Nov. 22 by U.S. District Judge David Ezra.
Belluomini told U.S. Magistrate Leslie Kobayashi yesterday that he sold a bodybuilding drug containing the hormone to "a former friend" who, like Belluomini, was involved in competitive bodybuilding.
Belluomini told Kobayashi he knew that the buyer of the drug intended to use it to enhance his physique.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Brady said that in exchange for Belluomini's guilty plea and his willingness to cooperate with authorities in other investigations or to testify at trial against others, the government agreed to a reduction in the criminal offense level in Belluomini's case.
Michael Green, Belluomini's lawyer, said he intends to ask for probation.
"He never planned to hurt anyone else and didn't hurt anyone else by supplying the growth hormone to someone who he thought was his friend," Green said.
"He made all of $50 and, as a result, ruined his career as a police officer. He was just devastated by this."
The hormone is prescribed primarily to AIDS patients to combat the physical wasting process that is a part of the disease, Green said. But some of those patients sell the drug at a huge markup to bodybuilders.
"This stuff goes on all over the country, not just here," Green said. "I don't mean to trivialize what is a federal offense, but there are more pressing problems out there to deal with."
According to court documents, at least some of the sales took place when Belluomini was in uniform and driving his police-subsidized vehicle. One documents says a confidential informant told law enforcement officials that he had arranged to buy two boxes of the drug Serostim from Belluomini.
Belluomini was placed on leave with pay after he was indicted in May and was listed under that same status as of yesterday, Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said.
She could not immediately say when that status might change as a result of Belluomini's guilty plea.
Reach David Waite at dwaite@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8030.
