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3 0 - 0 3 - 2 0 0 6 Balco founder leaving prison but not his past HE PLANS TO STAY IN DEBATE ON DRUGS IN SPORTS By Elliott Almond Mercury News 03/29/2006 TAFT - The weekly visitor's day at the Taft Correctional Institution last week was as festive as a family picnic. Smiling wives, girlfriends and parents joined inmates, clad in white T-shirts and khakis, to share vending-machine fare and talk above the children's screeches. ``It's like a men's retreat here,'' said Victor Conte Jr., who is scheduled to be released today after serving four months for giving elite athletes illegal performance-enhancing drugs. He will be under house arrest for the next four months. The mastermind of the Balco Laboratories drug scandal was buoyant as he talked about his time at the minimum-security facility 30 miles west of Bakersfield. ``I met some great guys here,'' said Conte, who has been asked for his autograph dozens of times. ``There are some really smart people here.'' And many who are innocent, he added. Conte, 55, can't let go of the case that has consumed his life since September 2003, when authorities raided his Burlingame nutritional company and turned Balco into a household name. As he re-enters society, he said he hopes to use his fame to engage in a public debate about drugs and sports. He is considering book and movie deals; he also could testify in U.S. Anti-Doping Agency cases against athletes. He practiced his discourse in front of 100 inmates and guards during a debate about steroids in January. Conte and an amateur bodybuilder held the position that athletes have no choice but to take banned drugs. The other team argued it was cheating. Conte gave the Mercury News a copy of his opening statement, which said, ``Olympic and professional sports history is filled with collusion, corruption and doping cover-ups. The entire history of elite sport has been unfair to athletes who have chosen to play by the `official rules' instead of by what I will call the `real rules' of elite sport.'' Conte argued athletes have learned to elude testing. In most Olympic sports, athletes are charged only after missing three out-of-competition tests in 18 months. He explained: ``They call their own cell phones until they are filled with messages. If you say you are going to be one place, you simply go somewhere else. When they try to reach you, they can't leave a message. Then you show up when the drugs are out of your system in a few days and say, `Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't get the message.' '' A self-taught nutritionist, Conte learned some doping techniques in the early 2000s while working with sprinting stars such as Tim Montgomery, Dwain Chambers and Kelli White, who have since been banned from the sport. While he has insights into track, his association with baseball players such as Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield garnered more attention. Conte said, however, that he didn't give the same kind of sophisticated drugs to baseball players that he gave to Olympians. There was no need; drug testing in baseball wasn't instituted until 2003. (Nonetheless, Major League Baseball is expected to announce today that it will formally investigate allegations of steroid use by Bonds and other players.) Conte has been linked to Bonds through the player's trainer, Greg Anderson, who spent three months in a minimum-security prison for distributing drugs. Anderson, Bonds' childhood friend, trained a handful of baseball players at a Burlingame gym. Federal investigators confiscated drugs and documents implicating ballplayers during a raid at Anderson's home three years ago. Conte said he gave Bonds nutritional advice but never discussed illegal or banned drugs with him. The government alleged Balco supplied Anderson with the steroid THG and a testosterone cream that he gave to baseball players. Conte continues to say he gave drugs to Marion Jones, winner of five medals at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. He first made the allegation in a nationally televised interview in December 2004, after which the sprinter filed a $25 million defamation suit. Although the suit was settled last month, Conte hasn't retreated from the claims. ``I have direct knowledge that she took performance-enhancing drugs before, during and after the 2000 Olympics,'' he said. Conte said he could not disclose the terms of the agreement. Jones' attorney, Rich Nichols, said he would not comment until reading what Conte had to say. Jones, 30, has never publicly failed a drug test. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency has not charged her, although the outfit received incriminating documents from the Balco investigation. The agency used similar material to ban Montgomery and Chryste Gaines. Conte will return home having shed weight, emotionally and physically. He said the time away did him wonders. ``I don't take the sentence lightly, but I feel good,'' he said of his days in the barren Mojave Desert. Barbed-wire fences enclose the colorless buildings that make up the low-security facility. Conte lived in an adjacent work camp that has no fences to stop inmates from vanishing into the landscape dotted by oil derricks. ``There are signs that say `Out of bounds,' '' Conte said. His camp job: sweeping floors. During free time Conte said he sat in the sun reading metaphysical writer Ernest Holmes. This month he organized a track meet. Before Conte begins tackling the steroid issue, he said he plans to marry his longtime companion and spend time with his three daughters and grandchildren. He also plans to continue selling legal dietary supplements. Balco no longer exists, but its sister company, Scientific Nutrition for Advanced Conditioning, remains in operation. As Conte prepared to leave, inmates were already talking about the next celebrity expected to arrive -- former U.S. Rep. Randy ``Duke'' Cunningham, who was sentenced to eight years and four months for taking bribes. A judge recommended that he be sent to the place Conte called ``a men's retreat.'' [Link]

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