Nicole Bobek, busted in a meth ring.



http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-bobekcharged&prov=ap&type=lgns



--

Ruthann Biel,  mother, stitcher, music lover

bielr@... & bielra@...





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

--- In SkateFans@yahoogroups.com, Ruthann Biel <bielra@...> wrote:

>

> Nicole Bobek, busted in a meth ring.

>

> http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?slug=ap-bobekcharged&prov=ap&type=lgns

>

> --

> Ruthann Biel,  mother, stitcher, music lover

> bielr@... & bielra@...



and this from Phil Hersh



http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2009/07/bobek-once-a-skating-star-\

allegedly-key-player-in-drug-ring.html



Meagan Leigh

I don't think anyone figured Bobek would end up being more notorious

than Harding, but if she ends up in prison for leading a meth ring,

then I think she has trumped Harding.



And a few folks, way back when, wondered why some of us thought so

highly of Kwan even though she didn't win Olympic gold.



Suzanne

Suzanne Lainson <slainson@...> writes:



> I don't think anyone figured Bobek would end up being more notorious

> than Harding, but if she ends up in prison for leading a meth ring,

> then I think she has trumped Harding.

>

> And a few folks, way back when, wondered why some of us thought so

> highly of Kwan even though she didn't win Olympic gold.



Heh.  It seems to me that even just staying out of trouble with the

police is a pretty low bar to set on the decency scale.  :-P



From the stories I used to hear about Bobek during her competitive

days, I used to think that she was burning through life at such a

reckless pace that she wasn't even going to live long enough to see

30; if the drugs and drinking didn't get her, it was going to be AIDS

or something else.  Well, since she's made it to 31, she proved me

wrong about that....  but geez, her life must be a wreck for her to

have gotten into this mess.  :-(



Anyway....  Christopher Bowman told Christine Brennan in 1995 that

he'd been arrested 27 times already by that point and goodness knows

how many more times he got himself into trouble before he died.  Yet,

we never really heard anything about his career as a criminal in the

press except when he talked about it himself.  Why has Bobek's arrest

gotten so much more publicity?  When Rudy Galindo, Oksana Baiul, and

Alexei Yagudin were each picked up on DUI charges, we heard about

that, but they were all at or near the peak of their fame when that

happened, and Bobek is at least a dozen years removed.  We did hear

about Wolfgang Schwarz but that's really the only case of

long-ago-famous skater making the news because of criminal charges

that I can recall.  I'm willing to bet there are others out there we

just haven't heard about.



-Sandra the cynic

I remember when she was National Champ they had her speaking at high schools

about "just saying no." My how time flies.





--- In SkateFans@yahoogroups.com, Sandra Loosemore <pondscum@...> wrote:

>

> Suzanne Lainson <slainson@...> writes:

>

> > I don't think anyone figured Bobek would end up being more notorious

> > than Harding, but if she ends up in prison for leading a meth ring,

> > then I think she has trumped Harding.

> >

> > And a few folks, way back when, wondered why some of us thought so

> > highly of Kwan even though she didn't win Olympic gold.

>

> Heh.  It seems to me that even just staying out of trouble with the

> police is a pretty low bar to set on the decency scale.  :-P

>

> From the stories I used to hear about Bobek during her competitive

> days, I used to think that she was burning through life at such a

> reckless pace that she wasn't even going to live long enough to see

> 30; if the drugs and drinking didn't get her, it was going to be AIDS

> or something else.  Well, since she's made it to 31, she proved me

> wrong about that....  but geez, her life must be a wreck for her to

> have gotten into this mess.  :-(

>

> Anyway....  Christopher Bowman told Christine Brennan in 1995 that

> he'd been arrested 27 times already by that point and goodness knows

> how many more times he got himself into trouble before he died.  Yet,

> we never really heard anything about his career as a criminal in the

> press except when he talked about it himself.  Why has Bobek's arrest

> gotten so much more publicity?  When Rudy Galindo, Oksana Baiul, and

> Alexei Yagudin were each picked up on DUI charges, we heard about

> that, but they were all at or near the peak of their fame when that

> happened, and Bobek is at least a dozen years removed.  We did hear

> about Wolfgang Schwarz but that's really the only case of

> long-ago-famous skater making the news because of criminal charges

> that I can recall.  I'm willing to bet there are others out there we

> just haven't heard about.

>

> -Sandra the cynic

>

>> From the stories I used to hear about Bobek during her competitive

>> days, I used to think that she was burning through life at such a

>> reckless pace that she wasn't even going to live long enough to see

>> 30; if the drugs and drinking didn't get her, it was going to be AIDS

>> or something else.  Well, since she's made it to 31, she proved me

>> wrong about that....  but geez, her life must be a wreck for her to

>> have gotten into this mess.  :-(



Yeah, but young people often do crazy things. If I kept going like I

did in college--boy oh boy! Instead, I am a rural mother of three

military spouse who just celebrated her 15th wedding anniversary. None

of you knew me until I was 5 years out of college. So saying "Bobek

was wild when she was 20" really doesn't say anything.



I find this kind of perplexing, really. I recall a couple of years ago

there were news stories about Bobek having achieved normality after

skating, saving her money, not living the wild life. I wonder what

happened to that? I suppose it could have been spin at the time.



>> We did hear

>> about Wolfgang Schwarz but that's really the only case of

>> long-ago-famous skater making the news because of criminal charges

>> that I can recall.  I'm willing to bet there are others out there we

>> just haven't heard about.



Perhaps. But Bobek is American and she skated with COI for years. It

all comes down to Bobek being American.



dej



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I am Writer, hear me Pontificate!

I think the nature of the crime may have something to do with it.

Getting picked up for a DUI is not a big, big story. But being a

major player in a meth ring is kind of unique.



Suzanne

Suzanne, I was thinking the same thing. Distributing meth is light years above 

all the post whack nonsense that Tonya did.



I had a relative that was selling meth and other assorted drugs before he got

caught. All he smoked was weed, he never did meth. So one can be messed up in

the meth scene and not actually use. The money to be made is mind boggling.



This whole situation is just one big ball of sadness. I wonder what the hell

happened in Nicole's life that she decide, "why the hell not?".



Ford-->I'd rather remember Nicole how she tore my heart out tanking her programs

than this. :(





Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

On Jul 7, 2009, at 5:06 AM, pteropus.seychellensis@... wrote:



> Suzanne, I was thinking the same thing. Distributing meth is light

> years above  all the post whack nonsense that Tonya did.

>

> I had a relative that was selling meth and other assorted drugs

> before he got caught. All he smoked was weed, he never did meth. So

> one can be messed up in the meth scene and not actually use. The

> money to be made is mind boggling.



Based on the photo that the showed of her in the article, she didn't

look like she had been personally using meth. All the photos I have

seen of meth users look like they had been living on the streets and

she looked healthy.



So maybe she wasn't a user herself.



At any rate, running a drug operation is definitely a bigger story

than a DIU or even suffering from addiction, which appeared to be the

heart of Bowman's story.



Also, celebrity stories circulate so much faster now that that may be

another reason why she's getting more coverage than Bowman did.



Suzanne

--- In SkateFans@yahoogroups.com, Suzanne Lainson <slainson@...> wrote:



> Based on the photo that the showed of her in the article, she didn't

> look like she had been personally using meth. All the photos I have

> seen of meth users look like they had been living on the streets and

> she looked healthy.

>

> So maybe she wasn't a user herself.



It takes awhile before a meth user develops that "living on the streets" look,

although it happens faster with meth than with other drugs. Jodie Sweeten, the

actress who played the middle daughter on "Full House" was once addicted to meth

and she was using for quite some time before her husband knew about it. I hope

Nicole wasn't using meth, but you can't really tell from the photo.



> At any rate, running a drug operation is definitely a bigger story

> than a DIU or even suffering from addiction, which appeared to be the

> heart of Bowman's story.



I've been doing some research on meth rings for a story I'm writing. The fact

that Nicole is facing 10 years in prison and is in jail with $200,000 bond

indicates serious involvement, as opposed to a situation like you'd see on

"Cops" where she gets pulled over and they find a small amount of drugs in her

car or something along those lines.



> Also, celebrity stories circulate so much faster now that that may be

> another reason why she's getting more coverage than Bowman did.



Yeah, Bowman competed before the skating boom and before the Internet as we know

it existed. Also, the powers-that-be in the skating world covered up a lot of

the trouble he got himself into in order to preserve the image of our fine

sport. I do remember the posters on the old Prodigy skating board discussing one

of Christopher's arrests, somewhere around 1993 or 1994-ish. But even at that

point, he was no longer competing or performing and the only people who would

have read that particular Internet discussion were fans like ourselves.

At any rate, running a drug operation is definitely a bigger story.  Also,

celebrity stories circulate so much faster now that that may be another reason

why she's getting more coverage than Bowman did.



-------------------------



I can't believe the way she looks - short dark hair - I wonder if it was a

disguise once she found out the feds were looking for her.  What a waste of

talent.  Unless she makes a deal with the feds to turn state's evidence, she

could be looking at real prison time.



Doria

At 10:16 PM 7/7/2009, Jennifer Lyon wrote:





>I've been doing some research on meth rings for a story I'm writing.

>The fact that Nicole is facing 10 years in prison and is in jail

>with $200,000 bond indicates serious involvement, as opposed to a

>situation like you'd see on "Cops" where she gets pulled over and

>they find a small amount of drugs in her car or something along those lines.

>



It's sad that Nicole got herself into this mess. Things like this

also speak to what could happen to former athletes/child actors, etc

who are out of the business or can't get work and they have no other

skills. We've had discussions about whether what kind of real

education skaters get while competing and what the ramifications

might be (do they get to slide a lot because education takes a

backseat to skating?). It is almost surprising that more people of

this type don't fall into things like this.



>Yeah, Bowman competed before the skating boom and before the

>Internet as we know it existed. Also, the powers-that-be in the

>skating world covered up a lot of the trouble he got himself into in

>order to preserve the image of our fine sport. I do remember the

>posters on the old Prodigy skating board discussing one of

>Christopher's arrests, somewhere around 1993 or 1994-ish. But even

>at that point, he was no longer competing or performing and the only

>people who would have read that particular Internet discussion were

>fans like ourselves.



These days, all famous people(heck to a lesser degree us "regular"

folks, too) should be more careful about the things they do in

public. These days anyone with a cell phone can take a picture/call

TMZ, whatever and the info travels fast for celeb news.

On Jul 7, 2009, at 10:46 PM, Virginia wrote:

>

> It's sad that Nicole got herself into this mess.



There were so many red flags with that kid early on. When she was at

the Broadmoor, I think everyone was aware she wasn't getting an

education. And the family unit (Nicole, her mother, and her mother's

friend) went from rink to rink trying to find the right coach. They

were one of the most extreme examples of a family putting everything

they had into skating.



Nicole was always half-hearted about the skating, so that should have

been an indication that it was time to pull her out and have all of

them do something else with their lives. But instead they continued

to drift.



Suzanne



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

At 12:16 AM 7/8/2009, Suzanne Lainson wrote:





>Nicole was always half-hearted about the skating, so that should have

>been an indication that it was time to pull her out and have all of

>them do something else with their lives. But instead they continued

>to drift.



It always seemed that Nicole's mom really wanted to live off Nicole

and her skating star millions they thought she might get. That has to

get to a kid.

On Jul 7, 2009, at 11:54 PM, Virginia wrote:

>

> It always seemed that Nicole's mom really wanted to live off Nicole

> and her skating star millions they thought she might get. That has to

> get to a kid.



That's what I suspected too. And I wondered the reason Bobek never

gave it her all was a form of rebellion. And yet she was too tied

into the life to totally quit. So I interpreted her half-heartedness

as ambivalence about her life/family.



Suzanne



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Virginia wrote:



> It always seemed that Nicole's mom really wanted to live off Nicole

> and her skating star millions they thought she might get. That has to

> get to a kid.



Here's another AP article, this one with quotes from Jana Bobek.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802042.\

html

Ex-skate champ Bobek posts bail, faces meth charge - washingtonpost.com



   "Jana Bobek said her daughter liked to party and may be in trouble

    because of the company she keeps.



   "'If she is in some kind of trouble, she is probably in some trouble

    because she got in with the wrong company. I do strongly believe she

    would never do anything criminal,' Jana Bobek told The Associated

    Press."



   "'It's very upsetting to me,' said Jana Bobek, who secured her

    daughter's bond. 'She's my only child.'"

--- In SkateFans@yahoogroups.com, vsethi@... wrote:



> Here's another AP article, this one with quotes from Jana Bobek.

>

>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802042.\

html

> Ex-skate champ Bobek posts bail, faces meth charge - washingtonpost.com

>

>   "Jana Bobek said her daughter liked to party and may be in trouble

>    because of the company she keeps.

>

>   "'If she is in some kind of trouble, she is probably in some trouble

>    because she got in with the wrong company. I do strongly believe she

>    would never do anything criminal,' Jana Bobek told The Associated

>    Press."



Nicole is 31 years old, well beyond her teen years and not even what I would

consider a young adult. That whole "she got in with the wrong crowd" excuse

doesn't wash with me. This isn't high school. This also isn't Champions On Ice

circa 1996 where they'd have 17-year-olds partying after the show with skaters

twice their age. When you're 31, you're old enough to know better.

---- Jennifer Lyon <jenniferlyon@...> wrote:

> --- In SkateFans@yahoogroups.com, vsethi@... wrote:

>

> > Here's another AP article, this one with quotes from Jana Bobek.

> >

> >

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802042.\

html

> > Ex-skate champ Bobek posts bail, faces meth charge - washingtonpost.com

> >

> >   "Jana Bobek said her daughter liked to party and may be in trouble

> >    because of the company she keeps.

> >

> >   "'If she is in some kind of trouble, she is probably in some trouble

> >    because she got in with the wrong company. I do strongly believe she

> >    would never do anything criminal,' Jana Bobek told The Associated

> >    Press."

>

> Nicole is 31 years old, well beyond her teen years and not even what I would

consider a young adult. That whole "she got in with the wrong crowd" excuse

doesn't wash with me. This isn't high school. This also isn't Champions On Ice

circa 1996 where they'd have 17-year-olds partying after the show with skaters

twice their age. When you're 31, you're old enough to know better.



Yeah, Nicole's had a long time to grow up and outgrow the whole "peer pressure"

thing. She also doesn't seem to have been very good at finding worthy role

models to hang with...she chose the company of poor ones over better ones. When

you're 31, that no longer washes as an excuse that gets you anywhere but prison.

There's a reason they call it JUVENILE delinquency, after all.



Truly sad that Nicole is shaping up to be yet another huge waste of national

talent in the figure skating world...yet another person with an incredible

natural gift who's never been quite able to figure out what to do with it.



Something rang wrong with me years ago when she was still on the COI tour and

she was living in a gigantic mansion with her then-boyfriend, showing off their

swimming pool and whatnot on TV like she was on Lifestyles of the Rich and

Famous. I mentioned at the time that she seemed to have an awful lot of

ostantatious wealth for someone so very young, and someone responded to that

with something like "Well, Tom Collins does pay awfully well."



Now I'm wondering whether he really did, or whether Nicole and her boyfriend had

other "businesses" going on on the side even then. Or whether maybe at the time

they were living high off the hog from her earnings as a skater, but when her

touring opportunities faded away, so did her ability to live in the manner to

which she had become accustomed. And she saww a quick way to make easy money

and...there you have it.



I hope somewhere Nicole has a friend willing to say to her that she's headed

down Christopher Bowman Boulevard right now, and if she doesn't shape up, she's

going to reach a similar destination.



Trudi