VAN NUYS : L.A. Officer Cleared of Using Steroids

A Los Angeles police captain who was accused of illegally using anabolic steroids has been cleared of wrongdoing, his attorney and a department spokesman said Wednesday.

Capt. John P. Mutz, a 16-year veteran assigned to the Van Nuys Division, was found not guilty of two administrative charges--soliciting a doctor to commit a felony and improperly using anabolic steroids, said his attorney, Barry Levin of Los Angeles. The decision, based on four days of testimony before a three-member disciplinary panel, was issued late Tuesday.

Mutz, 42, was the fourth and highest-ranking Los Angeles police officer to be ordered before a Board of Rights because of his ties to Dr. Walter F. Jekot, who was indicted on federal charges of illegally distributing the muscle-building drug to clients, including athletes and law enforcement officers.

Levin acknowledged Wednesday that Mutz, an avid amateur weightlifter, had been a patient of Jekot’s. But he said six steroid injections Mutz received between July and October, 1990, were treatments for a medical condition and not bodybuilding.