Jury selection began this morning in the case of a former Pittsburgh Steelers doctor accused of trafficking in steroids and narcotics with a business partner who pleaded guilty Monday on the eve of trial.
Richard Rydze, 66, who had been the Steelers' doctor for more than two decades until he left in 2007, is accused of 185 counts of distributing painkillers since 2005 and trafficking in human growth hormones and steroids since 2007.
He and a partner, James Hatzimbes, were indicted in 2012 in the steroid and narcotics case and indicted a second time in 2015 on health care fraud charges related to bogus prescriptions for nerve stimulation machines used to treat pain.