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BALCO judge, lawyers frustrated with news leaks
By Paul Elias
AP
August 27, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO – The federal judge presiding over the sports steroids
case here again voiced her frustration Friday with the continued
leaks of confidential information to the media as lawyers for the
four defendants and the prosecutor all denied being the source of
the leaks.
"I just don't know what to do," Judge Susan Illston said. "I have
abject denials from everybody I have jurisdiction over."
Illston said she is still considering what action, if any, to take
to stop the rampant leaking of confidential information.
According to defense attorney Robert Holley, who represents Victor
Conte, the lead defendant in the case, there have been at least 29
news different news accounts based on confidential information.
Conte is the head of Burlingame-based BALCO, a nutritional
supplement lab that is at the center of an alleged steroids
distribution ring.
Holley said the most recent leak occurred Thursday when the San
Francisco Chronicle published a story based on e-mails Conte sent to
elite Greek athletes. The paper said the e-mails indicated that the
athletes were receiving banned steroids.
"The leaks have not only hurt Mr. Conte's case, it's hurts his
personal reputation and it hurts his business reputation," Holley
said. "The name BALCO is now synonymous with steroids distribution."
Federal prosecutor Jeff Nedrow said the government had nothing to do
with the leaks and pointed out that Conte sent a widely distributed
letter to President Bush, Attorney General John Ashcroft and three
federal prosecutors asking for a plea bargain in exchange for
revealing everything he knows about illegal doping in sports.
"If I find out it's Mr. Conte, I'm off the case," responded Holley.
Compounding Illston's task of detecting the source of the leaks is
the fact that many organizations and lawyers have had access to the
sensitive information being given anonymously to reporters.
The FBI, Internal Revenue Service and federal prosecutors, along
with U.S. senators and their staffs, all reviewed confidential
information – much of which has been turned over to U.S. doping
officials. Meanwhile, defense attorneys and prosecutors also have
access to the information.
Conte and three other men – trainer Greg Anderson, BALCO vice
president James Valente and track coach Remi Korchemny – are charged
with distributing steroids such as THG to top athletes.
TGH is the previously undetectable steroid at the heart of the BALCO
case. Five top track athletes have been suspended for THG use.
Sprinter Marion Jones is under investigation in the BALCO case, but
has not been charged and denies ever using banned drugs.
Baseball star Barry Bonds and dozens of other athletes testified
last fall before the grand jury that ultimately indicted the four
men.
[Link]
BALCO case crawling along
San Mateo County Times
Saturday, August 28, 2004
The case of four men accused of giving illegal steroids to
professional athletes continued moving slowly toward a trial
sometime next year at a hearing in federal court in San Francisco on
Friday.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston set a Dec. 1 date for hearing
defense motions and also for deciding whether any of those motions
require an evidentiary hearing.
A trial date has not yet been set.
The four defendants are Victor Conte, president of the Bay Area
Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO; laboratory Vice President James
Valente; track coach Remi Korchemny; and personal trainer Greg
Anderson.
They were indicted in February on charges of illegally distributing
anabolic steroids and mislabeled human growth hormones to allegedly
"dozens of professional athletes" in track and field, baseball and
football.
The four men, who are free on bail, have denied the charges.
The athletes who allegedly received the drugs have not been named or
charged by prosecutors.
Conte's lawyer, Robert Holley, told the judge that news leaks are
"devastating to my client" and endangered the chances of a fair
trial.
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
