Steroid probe is nearing the end

Most of the investigations are completed, but the final
outcome is unclear.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The former federal prosecutor who oversaw the government’s investigation into alleged performance-enhancing drug use by Barry Bonds and other professional athletes said Monday the nearly five-year probe could come to an end “in the not-too-distant future.”

Kevin Ryan declined to elaborate or offer firm dates, but said that “most of the heavy lifting was done” in the investigation before he left the office in March as part of the Bush administration’s controversial purge of eight U.S. attorneys across the country.

“All of the things you’re reading about now, the seeds were planted years ago,” he said.

But he did note that “it’s not my call anymore.”

Ryan’s replacement, interim U.S. attorney Scott Schools, declined comment.

Launched in 2002

The steroids probe was launched with the raid of the nutritional supplement company called the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative — or BALCO — in September 2002, two months after Ryan was sworn in as Northern California’s top federal prosecutor.

So far, prosecutors have indicted seven people and won five convictions in the steroids investigation.

Nonetheless, much of the public attention has been focused on the government’s seemingly endless investigation into whether Bonds committed perjury when he testified he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs.

He told a grand jury that he believed a clear substance and a cream given to him by his personal trainer were flaxseed oil and arthritis balm

Ryan declined to discuss the Bonds probe directly.

But he noted prosecutors and investigators had to take time away from the central focus of the steroids investigation on several occasions to deal with ancillary issues such as investigating grand jury testimony leaks to the media, litigating appeals and arguing for the jailing of Bonds’ personal trainer for refusing to testify.

“The case did not progress in the normal fashion,” said Ryan, who’s now in private practice at the law firm, Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP.

“There were just so many offshoots of it that it required our attention to be focused away from the primary focus.”

Speculation mounted last summer that Bonds would be indicted as the grand jury looking into the perjury allegations was set to expire.

Term about to expire

Instead, a new grand jury was sworn in to take over the probe. Its term is set to expire next month, which would effectively end the Bonds’ investigation if no indictment is handed up or a judge doesn’t extend its term for another six months.

Among the convictions won by Ryan’s office was against BALCO’s founder, Victor Conte, who pleaded guilty and served four months.

Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson, also pleaded guilty to money laundering and steroids distribution in connection with the BALCO investigation and spent three months in prison.

Anderson was ordered back to prison in August until he agrees to testify in the Bonds perjury probe.

Cyclist Tammy Thomas and track coach Trevor Graham each have pleaded not guilty to charges of perjury and misleading investigators.