Feds oppose naming names in steroid probe
Feds oppose naming names in steroid probe, By: Robert E. Kessler
July 10, 2007
Federal prosecutors say they have not turned over to a Major League Baseball commission the names of ballplayers involved in an investigation into steroid use, and are opposing efforts by two newspapers to have the names released publicly.
But the prosecutors concede they will allow a key witness in the case to talk privately to the commission, in the interests of the "greater good" of helping to stamp out "the insidious sub-culture surrounding the [baseball] steroid world."
In court papers filed this week in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, the prosecutors contend that the two Hearst newspapers -- the San Francisco Chronicle and the Times Union of Albany -- seeking public release of the ballplayers' names are motivated not by the public good, but solely by "pecuniary interest in selling newspapers."
The prosecutors' statement came in response to a suit filed early last month by the newspapers requesting the unsealing of the entire search warrant used by federal agents in a raid on a Long Island home of the key witness, who has acknowledged providing steroids and other drugs to athletes.
The man, Kirk Radomski, 37, of 50 Manorview Way, Manorville, pleaded guilty in April to selling a host of illegal, performance-enhancing drugs between 1995 and 2005 to "dozens of current and former Major League Baseball players and associates, on teams throughout Major League Baseball."
The names of the players involved were deleted from the Radomski search warrant when it was publicly released by prosecutors.
But as part of his plea bargain, prosecutors said Radomski, who worked in the New York Mets clubhouse from 1985 to 1995, agreed to cooperate not only with the federal investigation but with the private commission headed by former Sen. George Mitchell. The newspaper suit said that by having Radomski meet with the commission, the government, in effect, is allowing him to discriminate against the public's right to know.
Prosecutors responded that the newspapers are mistaken in assuming the Mitchell commission is, in effect, being given the undeleted search warrant containing the names of all the athletes involved in the investigation. The commission hasn't been given the undeleted warrant, prosecutors said.
In response to the prosecutors' papers, Eve Burton, the attorney for the Hearst newspapers, said "The government can not have it both ways by saying the players' names should be kept secret because there is an ongoing investigation while also ordering Radomski ... to give Mitchell, a member of the public, that same or similar information."
In a related development yesterday, attorneys for the players union, the Major League Baseball Players Association, filed a brief in the case supporting the prosecutors' position against releasing the names of the players, saying, "the privacy rights of the players] named in the search warrant materials outweigh any public right to access."
