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2/13/2007
"PRCA Commissioner Troy Ellerman Pleads Guilty
in Balco Investigation"
Courtesy the Associated Press...
S.F. Chronicle Writers To Avoid Jail Time
Lawyer Admits to Leaked Documents
Feb. 14 - Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters
will avoid jail time after a criminal defense
lawyer agreed to plead guilty to leaking them
secret grand jury documents from the BALCO
steroids investigation.
Attorney Troy Ellerman admitted in court papers
filed Wednesday that he allowed reporters Lance
Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada to view
transcripts of the grand jury testimony of
baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary
Sheffield and sprinter Tim Montgomery, according
to court documents.
The Chronicle published stories in 2004 that
reported Giambi and Montgomery admitted taking
steroids while Bonds and Sheffield testified
that they didn't knowingly take performance
enhancing drugs.
A federal judge ordered the reporters jailed
after they refused to divulge the source of the
story. They have remained free pending an appeal
to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Ellerman's plea agreement stated that the
federal prosecutors will no longer try to put
the reporters in prison.
The deal calls for Ellerman to spend two years
in prison and pay a $250,000 fine; the terms are
subject to approval by a judge. No date has been
set for the plea hearing.
Ellerman, who serves as commissioner of the
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association,
represented Victor Conte, founder of the Bay
Area Laboratory Co-operative, the Burlingame
supplements lab at the center of the federal
steroid probe. He later represented BALCO vice
president James Valente.
Eve Burton, general counsel for Hearst Corp.,
which owns the Chronicle, would not confirm or
deny that Ellerman was the source of the leaked
documents.
"As we have said throughout, we don't discuss
issues involving confidential sources," she
said.
Ellerman's attorney, Scott Tedmon, could not
immediately be reached for comment.
Conte and Valente were among five men who
pleaded guilty in an earlier phase of the
investigation, along with chemist Patrick
Arnold, Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson,
and track coach Remi Korchemny.
Bonds has never been charged but a cloud of
suspicion continues to plague the San Francisco
Giants slugger as he chases baseball's career
home run record. He told the grand jury he
thought Anderson had given him flaxseed oil and
arthritic balm, rather than the BALCO steroids
known as "The Clear" and "The Cream." A federal
grand jury is investigating Bonds for possible
perjury and obstruction of justice charges.
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