U.S. & World

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters will avoid jail time under a plea agreement by a criminal defense lawyer who admitted leaking them secret grand jury documents from the BALCO steroids investigation.

In court papers filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, attorney Troy Ellerman said 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.

Ellerman had represented Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative, the Burlingame supplements lab that allegedly provided performance enhancing drugs to the elite athletes, as well as BALCO vice president James Valente.

The Chronicle published stories in 2004 that reported Giambi and Montgomery admitted to the grand jury that they took steroids, while Bonds and Sheffield testified they didn't knowingly take the drugs. The leaked testimony also was featured prominently in the writers' book, "Game of Shadows," which recounts Bonds' alleged use of steroids.

A federal judge ordered the reporters jailed after they refused to divulge their source. They have remained free pending an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, but Ellerman's plea deal states that federal prosecutors will no longer try to put the reporters in prison.

Ellerman agreed to plead guilty to four felony counts of obstruction of justice and disobeying court orders, and to spend up to two years in prison and pay a $250,000 fine. A judge still has to approve the terms of Ellerman's plea agreement; no sentencing date has been set.

"I find the fact that Troy Ellerman has admitted to leaking the BALCO grand jury transcripts to be outrageous," Conte said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "This man was an officer of the court who was highly paid to provide the services of a criminal defense attorney. Instead, he chose to serve his own agenda and act in a way that was tremendously damaging to his own clients."

Conte and Valente were among five men who pleaded guilty to steroids-related charges in an earlier phase of the investigation.

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.

Williams declined to comment, and Fainaru-Wada did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Ellerman's attorney, Scott Tedmon, could not immediately be reached.

Ellerman, a 44-year-old resident of Woodland Park, Colo., is commissioner of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association.

He earlier represented Conte, but it was in 2004, when Ellerman was preparing Valente's defense against steroid distribution charges that he became a key source for the two Chronicle reporters.

In March 2004, Ellerman signed an agreement that he would not disclose grand jury testimony given to him to prepare the defense. But in June of that year, he allowed Fainaru-Wada to come to his office and take verbatim notes of Montgomery, and the Chronicle published a story about the sprinter's testimony on June 24, according to court documents.

After telling Judge Susan Illston that he was angry about the leak, he filed a statement with the court swearing that he wasn't the source. And in October 2004, he filed a motion to dismiss the criminal case against Valente because of "repeated government leaks of confidential information to the media."

The following month, he again allowed Fainaru-Wada to take verbatim notes of the grand jury transcripts, this time of the testimony of Bonds, Giambi and Sheffield, the court papers show.

San Francisco U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said the plea deal should end speculation that his office was a source of the leaks.

"I've maintained from the beginning that neither the agents nor the federal prosecutors involved in the BALCO case were the source of any grand jury leaks," he said. "I've always had the utmost confidence in this team's integrity."

Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, said Ellerman's admission was one of the best possible outcomes for journalism.

"Ultimately, the reporters did not have to go to jail and they did not have to compromise on ethics, and that's a good thing," Scheer said. "All the press can promise, and it's not a lot, is that we're not going to give you up. Of course, someone else might."

Besides Conte and Valente, chemist Patrick Arnold, Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson, and track coach Remi Korchemny have all pleaded guilty in the BALCO probe. Korchemny and Valente were sentenced to probation and the others were each sentenced to jail terms no longer than four months.

Bonds has never been charged but suspicion continues to dog 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 him for possible perjury and obstruction of justice charges.

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