Montgomery pleads innocent, denied bond on heroin charges

Disgraced former 100-meter world record-holder Tim Montgomery pleaded innocent to heroin distribution charges Tuesday and had a trial set for July 9 after a federal judge denied him bail.

US District Court Judge F. Bradford Stillman called the 33-year-old sprinter, whose career ended with a 2005 doping ban, a danger to the community and a risk to flee in denying the bond request.

Montgomery will remain in Portsmouth city jail after his arrest last week on charges of dealing more than 100 grams of heroin in the past year. Prosecutors denied four sales Montgomery allegedly made in the bond hearing.

Montgomery also faces sentencing May 16 in New York after pleading guilty in a check fraud scheme. He could received up to 46 months in prison on those charges.

But Montgomery's attorney, James Broccoletti, said his client has a positive attitude about the troubles before him.

"He is positive, wants the matter to be resolved in New York next week, wants to have one step at a time and get on with his life. He is being very mature and very positive about it," Broccoletti said.

Montgomery could also have bond reconsidered after sentence is passed in new York.

"The court agreed to a reconsideration of the bond depending on what the court does in New York. Obviously if he is sentenced to a period of incarceration then bond here is a moot issue."

Marion Jones, the mother of Montgomery's son Tim Jnr, is in jail after pleading guilty to charges in the check fraud scheme and perjury for lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs.

Jones was forced to surrender the five medals she won at the 2000 Sydney Olympics after admitting she was a dope cheat.

Montgomery's 2005 ban, based upon evidence linking him to once-undetectable steroids in the BALCO scandal, wiped out his world-record 100-meters time of 9.78 seconds from September of 2002.

Neither he nor Jones ever tested positive.

Montgomery won 2000 Sydney Olympic gold in the 4x100 relay and a silver medal in the same event in 1996 at the Atlanta Olympics, despite not appearing in the finals of either race.