Radomski moved TV, found receipt, gave it to authorities

Updated: July 17, 2008, 12:17 PM ET

By Mike Fish | ESPN.com

The case against Roger Clemens might turn on a busted television.

Convicted steroid distributor Kirk Radomski told ESPN.com that while he was moving a broken television off a dresser in the bedroom of his Long Island home last Sunday night, he found a shipping receipt for human growth hormone that he claims to have sent to Clemens' Houston home in 2002 or 2003. Radomski said he found that receipt, along with "seven or eight others" for shipments to other baseball players, under the TV.

"My TV broke and I said, 'Damn, I got to get it off the dresser,'" Radomski said Wednesday. "And it was right there."

Radomski said he turned the evidence over to federal authorities on Monday.

My TV broke and I said, 'Damn, I got to get it off the dresser.' And it was right there.

--Kirk Radomski

Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young Award winner who is being investigated for perjury, denied under oath before Congress in February that he ever used steroids or human growth hormone. He also denied having knowledge that his wife, Debbie Clemens, was injected with HGH by his former personal trainer, Brian McNamee, prior to a photo shoot for a Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.

Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Clemens and McNamee offered dramatically conflicting testimony on the injections given to Clemens' wife in the master bedroom of their home. Clemens said he had no knowledge about it, but was irate after the fact. McNamee told Congress that Clemens watched as he injected the HGH into his wife's abdomen.

Radomski, 38, is a friend of McNamee's who has backed him in his public war of words with Clemens. He said he told federal investigators early on about the shipment to Clemens' house, and was prepared to provide an affidavit in McNamee's defense in the defamation suit Clemens has brought against the trainer.

"The investigators knew from day one that I sent a package to Clemens' house," Radomski told ESPN.com. "They knew before the Mitchell report was released and before Brian went before Congress. So this is nothing new to them.

"I just couldn't find the receipt. And just by [accident] this weekend, I moved my TV and whatnot and I found the package, an envelope, and it had [Clemens'] receipt and about seven or eight other receipts."

Soon after he discovered the envelope, Radomski said he called Jeff Novitzky, the San Francisco-based federal investigator leading the government's probes of drugs in sport, who happened to be in the New York area. The next day, Novitzky and Matthew Parrella, an assistant U.S. Attorney from San Francisco, went to Radomski's auto detailing shop on Long Island and picked up the evidence.

"They were happy that I found it, because they thought they would never find it," Radomski said. "I'd told them, 'I know that it was in my house.' I said, 'You guys sure you didn't take it [in the original raid]?' It just happened to turn up."

Radomski said he also alerted McNamee of the find after meeting with Novitzky and Parrella.

The records and information gathered from Radomski, a former New York Mets clubhouse employee, provided the bulk of the evidence in former Senate majority leader George Mitchell's nearly two-year study on steroid use in Major League Baseball. Radomski received a five-year probation sentence in February after cooperating with federal investigators.

Radomski said he couldn't recall the names of the other players for whom he had receipts for shipments, but he said they had all been previously named in the Mitchell report.

The delivery to Clemens' house, sent via overnight U.S. mail, contained two kits of HGH, Radomski said. He said he believes he made at least one other shipment to Clemens, but doesn't have additional receipts.

"It was addressed to Clemens as a hold for Brian McNamee," Radomski said. "Brian knows what he did with it. They signed for it, because all my packages you always had to sign for. Brian never signed for the package. The package got there before Brian got down there."

The lawyer for McNamee told The Associated Press on Wednesday that McNamee did not sign for the package even though he requested HGH for Clemens and/or his wife.

"Brian, when he went to check Debbie, Clemens had the HGH all laid out for him," Richard Emery said. "That's contrary to Clemens' testimony in front of Congress. So, once again, the slip corroborates Brian's truthfulness."

Radomski said he was never paid directly by Clemens, Andy Pettitte and Chuck Knoblauch, all of whom were clients of McNamee's at the time and all of whom were named as users in the Mitchell report.

"Brian would always give me the money," he said. "I never dealt directly with Clemens or talked to Pettitte directly about any of the growth or nothing. They always went through Brian. And Brian would always see me and pay me."

Radomski said he isn't sure of the source of the HGH he sent to Clemens' house, though he said he often obtained it from AIDS patients eager to sell a monthly supply of it for upwards of $1,600. He said they sought out bodybuilders such as himself in gyms or on the street to make their sales.

Mike Fish is an investigative reporter for ESPN.com. He can be reached at michaeljfish@gmail.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.