Affidavit

WASHINGTON -- A recently discharged Army private appeared in federal court in Charlotte, N.C., yesterday, where he was charged with raping and killing an Iraqi woman after rounding up and killing three members of her family as part of a planned assault in the central Iraqi town of Mahmoudiya. Steven D. Green, 21, was arrested Friday in Marion, N.C., after a four-day nationwide manhunt. Army investigators were told recently by soldiers still serving in Iraq that Green, accompanied by three other soldiers, had committed the rape and killings in March.

While everybody waits for the remaining names in the Jason Grimsley affidavit to be revealed, the Orioles are trying to proceed as if they aren't all aware that the other shoe is going to land right in the middle of their clubhouse. Three of the blacked-out names in the leaked affidavit clearly are current or former Orioles, based on Grimsley's claim that he had a conversation with three teammates last year about "how they were going to play the baseball season next year when Major League Baseball banned the use of amphetamines and began testing for them."

NEW YORK -- Former Orioles first baseman David Segui told ESPN yesterday that he is one of the players named in Jason Grimsley's affidavit on drug use in baseball and that he used human growth hormone obtained through a doctor's prescription. Segui, the first player in the affidavit to be identified, was a 15-year major league veteran who finished his career with the Orioles in 2004. He is the third former Oriole along with Grimsley and Rafael Palmeiro to be connected to baseball's battle against the use of performance enhancers.

Three months after the hype and headlines, I have finally read Game of Shadows, the book by two San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters who broke open the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) steroid scandal. Before turning the first page, several fellow baseball writers had already shared their feelings about the book. One said it read like a 250-page newspaper article. Another said there was too much track and field and not enough focus on San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, whose back adorns the front cover.

Nearly a year after the Rafael Palmeiro steroid scandal and months removed from the federal government's inquiries into Miguel Tejada's vitamin B-12 usage, the Orioles are again intertwined in an investigation involving drugs and baseball. Former Orioles reliever Jason Grimsley told Internal Revenue Service investigators that he purchased human growth hormone between 10 and 12 times in the past several years and also admitted he paid for a double shipment while with the Orioles, according to a federal affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Rush Limbaugh was arrested yesterday on a doctor-shopping charge in the Palm Beach County state attorney's office's long-running investigation into his drug use, and he agreed to supervision for 18 months while he continues his rehabilitation. Limbaugh, 55, a Palm Beach, Fla., resident, his lawyers and prosecutors reached an agreement on the single felony charge, and the conservative radio talk show host surrendered at the Palm Beach County Jail late yesterday afternoon.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A federal grand jury indicted a Lodi ice cream truck driver and his son yesterday on charges that they lied to FBI agents during an investigation into potential ties to Pakistan terrorist training camps. Hamid Hayat, 22, is charged with two counts of lying to agents about attending a terrorism camp and receiving weapons instruction for a holy war against the United States. The three-count indictment accuses Umer Hayat, 47, of a single charge of falsely denying any knowledge that his son took terrorism training in Pakistan.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Attorneys for a father and son arrested in connection with a broad FBI terrorism probe plan to challenge the government case in court today over significantly differing versions of the affidavit used to charge the two men. The first version of the affidavit released to the media by the Department of Justice in Washington said potential terrorist targets included hospitals and stores and contained names of key individuals and statements...

LODI, Calif. - An American man of Pakistani descent has been arrested along with his father, a naturalized U.S. citizen, as part of an investigation by federal officials into possible al- Qaida terrorist connections in this town about 40 miles south of Sacramento. According to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento, the man, Hamid Hayat, 22, told investigators last weekend that he had been trained "on how to kill Americans' at a camp in Pakistan affiliated with al-Qaida.

The trial of an Elkridge massage parlor operator accused of trying to bribe a state inspector and two Howard County police officers has been set for July 12. Court officials also set a June 3 hearing date for motions filed on behalf of Sung Yul Kim, 65, of Fort Lee, N.J. He is free on $100,000 bond. Kim, the owner of the Oriental Spa in the 6300 block of Washington Blvd., was arrested in February after an investigation that spanned more than a year. He is accused of offering bribes to state inspector Paul Murphy, who alerted authorities, according to prosecutors.