The United States government has spent $55 million dollars on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) anabolic steroid scandal that has focused its attention on professional athletes who used performance-enhancing drugs. Prosecutors have obtained convictions for many players involved in the scandal but have very little to show for their considerable efforts and expenses in terms of actual jail time.
The ultimate prize in the government’s BALCO investigation would be the successful conviction and incarceration of MLB home run king Barry Bonds; however, legal experts doubt that Barry Bonds will spend a single day in jail based on the probationary sentences given to Tammy Thomas and Trevor Graham. Some doubt that Bonds will be convicted given the extremely weak evidence in the perjury case (”This much is Clear: Bonds getting raw deal,” January 21).
Basically, the government has portrayed Bonds as a steroid cheat and someone who lied about using the Clear and is prosecuting Bonds for that lie. But if the Clear wasn’t a steroid, then when Bonds testified he wasn’t knowingly using steroids, he was telling the truth.
This isn’t just a technicality. This is a major front falling in the government’s case: that Bonds lied about using steroids. It appears he didn’t.
The biggest issue is the government itself. They apparently knew that the Clear wasn’t technically categorized as a steroid and still pursued a perjury case against Bonds anyway.
If all of this is accurate it’s a gross abuse of power. It means the government is simply using Bonds’ notoriety — and infamy — to make an example of him.
They want to teach future athletes a lesson: use steroids and you’ll end up like Bonds. They’re doing this by any means necessary. This isn’t how the government should behave, no matter how unlikable the target.
Barry Bonds is scheduled to stand trial on perjury and obstruction of justice charges revolving around statements on his own use of anabolic steroids on March 2, 2009.
United States District Judge Susan Illston has honored the request of U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello to unseal court documents from the BALCO grand jury investigation. The documents included transcripts, athlete medical records and lab reports that could have relevance in the Barry Bonds perjury trial next spring (”Judge unseals documents regarding Bonds’ alleged steroid use,” November 26).
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston signed an order that allows prosecutors to share grand jury transcripts, medical lab reports and search warrant affidavits with Bonds’ lawyers. It came in response to a request from the U.S. Attorney’s office last week that the protective order on the documents be lifted to avoid possibly delaying Bonds’ trial, scheduled to begin March 2.
BALCO mastermind Victor Conte supports the federal government request to fully dislose the witness lists and transcripts of BALCO grand jury testimony to the public as a “positive thing.” The sealed documents include thousands of pages of athlete and witness testimony, athlete lab tests, and search warrants. U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello made this request after Barry Bonds’ attorneys requested the information in preparation for the Bonds’ trial on perjury and obstruction of justice charges in March 2009 (”Feds ask for release of sealed BALCO transcripts,” November 21).
[Victor Conte] told the Daily News Thursday night that he believes there is much valuable information in the sealed documents, including lab results and other medical records that could become relevant in Bonds’ trial. “I wanted the information to be available in case of a subpoena in the Bonds trial,” Conte said. “It’s a positive thing to have it released.”
The identity of many witness in addition to their testimony has already been leaked to the press and has become public knowledge. The feds argue that the material the reasons for protecting the confidentiality of the testimony no longer exist. … Read the rest of this entry »
Former track star Marion Jones will appear on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss her use of anabolic steroids, her perjury conviction and her time in prison as a result on Wednesday, October 29, 2008.
Jones says she lied when the feds presented her with a designer steroid known as “the clear” during the course of the BALCO steroid investigation.
“They pulled out a vial and pushed it across the table,” Jones said during the interview, which is scheduled to be broadcast Wednesday on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
“When they showed it to me and they said this is the substance, and I knew that I had taken that substance, I made the decision that I was gonna lie and I was gonna, you know, try and cover it up.”
Her admission of the use of banned performance enhancing substances led to a conviction for perjury. The judge decided to make an example out of her for lying about steroid use and sentenced her to six months in prison.
Tim Montgomery, former track star and “world’s fastest man,” has been sentenced to prison for almost 10 years as the result of convictions in two separate cases. Most recently, Montgomery was sentenced to 5 years in prison for the possession and distribution of heroin. This sentence will be added to a 46-month prison term for his role in a check-fraud scam.
Montgomery, 33, was convicted in a U.S. District Court in Norfolk, Va., of conspiracy to possess, with intent to distribute, and distribution of more than 100 grams of heroin. He received the minimum sentence for the crimes.
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The sentence will not run concurrent to the 46 months he was given in a New York federal court after pleading guilty in 2007 to conspiracy in a bank fraud and money laundering plot.
Tim Montgomery was once the holder on one of the most prestigious titles in the world of sports - the world’s fastest man. But his career quickly unraveled as he was linked to the BALCO steroid scandal. Tim Montgomery admitted to using banned performance enhancing drugs such as human growth hormone and THG.
BALCO figure Trevor Graham, who was once an elite track coach to the greatest sprinters in the world, will be sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston on October 21. Federal prosecutors feel that Trevor Graham should go to prison for 10 months since he may have irreparably corrupted USA Track and Field by lying about his relationship with steroid dealer Angel Heredia.
“In the process, he played a key role in corrupting USA Track and Field to the extent that it may never recover from the damage he helped to inflict,” prosecutors said in a court filing.
Of course, that is the typical prosecutor trying to trump up the seriousness of lying about steroids to justify wasting so much money on the BALCO and related investigations/prosecutions. … Read the rest of this entry »
Cyclist Tammy Thomas avoided prison time when she was sentenced to six months house arrest and five years probation by United States District Judge Susan Illston. Tammy Thomas was convicted on three counts of making false statements (perjury) and one count of obstruction of justice.
Illston said Friday that the verdicts in Thomas’s case were fair and well founded but considering the sentences given out in other Balco-related cases, “it would be excessive to sentence Ms. Thomas to 30 months, which would be 10 times longer than the underlying miscreants,” referring to those who were distributing the steroids.
Illston cited Victor Conte, the founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, who received a four-month prison sentence; Patrick Arnold, a former chemist who worked for Balco, who was sentenced to three months in prison; and Remi Korchemny, the former track coach, and James Valente, the former vice president of Balco, who were sentenced to probation.
Judge Illston apparently does not agree with the government’s agenda of using perjury laws to make examples out of athletes who use steroids. The sentence is far less than the 30 months in prison the government had hoped for and represents a major setback for the government in their witch-hunt against Barry Bonds. … Read the rest of this entry »
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