US Judge rejects plea deal for steroid case leaker

June 16, 2007

Two years in prison is not enough punishment for the defense lawyer who leaked Barry Bonds' testimony from a grand jury investigating steroids in pro sports, a federal judge ruled on Thursday in rejecting a plea deal in the case.

February, Troy Ellerman, who represented the BALCO lab at the center of a global steroid scandal, admitted he shared details from a federal grand jury probe with two San Francisco Chronicle reporters.

Ellerman had agreed to a plea deal under which he would not have to serve more than two years behind bars, but U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White rejected the deal, saying the punishment was insufficient.

The judge gave Ellerman and the prosecution until next month to work out a new plea deal. The charged attorney could also withdraw his plea and face trial.

Ellerman had admitted he allowed the journalists in June and November 2004 to copy notes from the closed-door grand jury testimony from track-and-field star Tim Montgomery, as well as baseball players Bonds, Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield.

Unauthorized distribution of grand jury transcripts is a crime.

Bonds' lawyer has since confirmed the seven-time Most Valuable Player testified he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Just eight home runs away from tying Hank Aaron's Major League Baseball all-time home-run record, Bonds is still under federal investigation over whether he testified truthfully.

"The judge's decision to reject Ellerman's plea bargain today does not surprise me at all," Victor Conte, the former head of BALCO who served four months in prison in the case, said in an e-mail. "In leaking the BALCO grand jury transcripts, he not only made it difficult for me to defend my own case, but he made me a target of a federal obstruction of justice probe."

Before Ellerman's identity was revealed in an investigation, a federal judge last year said reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams should go to jail for not revealing their source. They had remained free while the matter was under appeal.

Changes against them have since been dropped.