Colleyville: Authorities checking if ex-trainer sold to teens at gym

08:34 AM CST on Wednesday, February 1, 2006

By MARISSA ALANIS / The Dallas Morning News

An e-mail tip to police that steroids might have been sold to teenagers led to the arrest last week of a personal trainer at a Colleyville gym for possession of anabolic steroids manufactured in Mexico, authorities said.

Colleyville police and Tarrant County narcotics unit members arrested Harold Bright Jr., 34, of Arlington on charges of possession of a controlled substance during a Jan. 25 traffic stop. He was stopped on an outstanding misdemeanor warrant.

Police searched Mr. Bright's car and found 70 doses of the steroid and 30 doses of Tamoxifen, a drug that is used to treat breast cancer in women and reduce nausea from steroid use, Colleyville Police Chief Tommy Ingram said.

Mr. Bright was booked into the Hurst jail and released that same day when he posted $5,637 bail.

Herschel Tebay, narcotics unit commander, said that labels on the steroids were in Spanish but that the box indicated that the drugs were anabolic steroids. He said the spelling was similar to that found on the anabolic steroids used in the U.S. A drug analysis is expected in a few days.

Chief Ingram said investigators are trying to determine if Mr. Bright sold steroids to teens at Life Time Fitness, 1221 Church St., where he worked. Mr. Bright resigned Tuesday after he met with his supervisor, said Kent Wipf, a Life Time Fitness spokesman.

Chief Ingram said a gym member overheard other members talking about steroids and Mr. Bright in January. The gym member told another person, who e-mailed the tip to Colleyville police. Police then requested help from the Tarrant County narcotics unit.

"Some people would say this is a flaky tip," the chief said. "But sometimes these things pan out."

The Grapevine-Colleyville area gained attention last February when nine Colleyville Heritage High School athletes, seven of them football players, admitted that they had used steroids during the previous school year. Grapevine-Colleyville school board trustees later decided to implement a random drug-testing program that started this school year.

Authorities said there isn't a connection between Mr. Bright and the Colleyville Heritage High athletes who admitted to steroid use. Mr. Tebay said Mr. Bright's name didn't come up during the steroid investigation at the high school.

Mr. Tebay said that Mr. Bright has had previous arrests in connection with possession of controlled substances, the last in 2003 in Tarrant County.

Mr. Bright will probably face only the possession charge because there isn't a way to prove he was selling to anybody else or had the intention to sell, other than the tip sent by e-mail, Chief Ingram said.

E-mail malanis@dallasnews.com