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0 7 - 0 3 - 2 0 0 5 Conte makes 'a fresh start'
NEW LAWYERS, AND A POSTPONEMENT
By Sean Webby and Elliott Almond
Balco Laboratories founder Victor Conte Jr. began the end game of his high-profile steroid case Friday with a new brace of lawyers and the hope for a legal fresh start.
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston granted Conte's request to remove his longtime counsel, Robert Holley of Sacramento. Conte's new lawyers, Edward Swanson and Mary McNamara of San Francisco, did not say whether they planned different strategies.
``Mr. Conte wanted to make a fresh start and refocus his defense,'' McNamara said after a half-hour hearing at the federal courthouse in San Francisco. But other than saying they would ``vigorously'' defend Conte, the new team gave no details.
Their first public move was to ask Illston for a postponement of an evidentiary hearing scheduled for March 16 so they could read the tens of thousands of pages of evidence in a case that has spawned the biggest drug scandal in sports history. The judge granted the postponement.
A hearing to decide the legality of a September 2003 search of the home of Greg Anderson, a Balco co-defendant, still is scheduled for March 16, and Illston ordered Conte's lawyers to appear so they could schedule a date for their own proceeding. The hearings will allow the judge to determine whether interviews with the suspects and search warrants were properly executed, and if any statements made or evidence seized during the raids should be suppressed. Neither the lawyers nor Conte would fully explain their motivation for the change in representation.
Holley told Illston he had a ``conflict of interest'' that arose about a week and a half ago. The lawyer did not elaborate, and after the hearing declined to comment about any aspect of the case. But that time frame lines up with Feb. 21, when Conte sent an e-mail to reporters with a statement attributed to Holley that the lawyer did not make. That was not the first conflict. Holley and Troy Ellerman, who is representing Balco executive James Valente, reportedly were surprised by Conte's decision to do a comprehensive interview with ABC, during which he admitted distributing steroids. Holley said he did not know about the ``20/20'' piece until it had been taped.
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[Definitie:] "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance."
(Wilmore and Costill) 
