BERKELEY, Calif., 17 June 2004 — The man accused of heading a steroid distribution ring to top athletes through his firm BALCO appealed to US President George W. Bush as he made his effort to win a plea bargain deal public on Tuesday.
The attorney for BALCO lab’s founder Victor Conte took the unlikely step of appealing to a president who condemned steroid use in his last State of the Union speech after Conte’s closed-door efforts to reach a deal with prosecutors broke down.
“Mr. Conte is willing to reveal everything he knows about officials, coaches and athletes in order to help to clean up the Olympics,” attorney Robert Holley wrote in the letter also sent to Attorney General John Ashcroft, who first announced the BALCO charges earlier this year.
“He will answer all questions from the United States Department of Justice, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
“In return, Mr. Conte asks that he not be forced to plead guilty to money laundering (a crime which he insists he did not commit) and that he be guaranteed a sentence of straight probation for both he and Mr. Valente,” the letter continued, referring to Conte’s deputy James Valente.
A federal grand jury charged Conte, Valente, baseball slugger Barry Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson and another coach with steroid distribution charges earlier this year.
As USADA gathers information on top names in track and field who have been linked to BALCO, including Marion Jones and 100 meters world record holder Tim Montgomery, the man at the centre of the scandal has said in effect that he is the one best able to sort through the scandal.
His bargaining leverage may be greatest at present, just weeks before the US trials in Sacramento, California to determine the track and field team for the August Olympics in Athens.
“We, all of us, need to do everything possible to send a clean Olympic team to Athens,” Holley wrote in the letter delivered to the White House on Tuesday.
“If we fail to do so, and the information about our failure is later made public, after the Olympic medals are given out, the results could be disastrous.
“A public outcry will be heard around the world that Americans are fraudulent rule breakers and cannot be trusted.
“There will be hearings and lawsuits and medals taken away. All of our athletes, past, present and future, will feel the sting and all Americans will feel the shame.”
Federal prosecutors have focused their BALCO probe on the middlemen of illegal performance-enhancing drugs such as the new THG steroid.
USADA, meanwhile, is busily working away to determine what athletes should be excluded from the Olympics because of steroid use. It has showed cryptic BALCO schedules and documents they believe were for Jones to her lawyers, and last week asked them for additional information. Jones vehemently denies any wrongdoing, as does Montgomery.
Jones’ ex-husband, C.J. Hunter, the former world shot put champion is also cooperating with law enforcement officials investigating steroid use in the United States, officials say.
Also last week USADA wrote letters to Montgomery, Jones’ partner, and three others alleging doping violations.
In a telephone interview, Conte’s attorney Holley told Reuters that USADA has long wanted to cut a deal but said the power to come to an agreement lies with prosecutors.
He said he felt that plea bargain talks had broken down and thus had decided to appeal to Bush. “We’ve come to the end of the rope and we feel a need to settle now,” he said.
