BALCO figures get less prison than drug dealers

By Adam Tanner

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The head of the BALCO lab at the
center of a global sports steroid scandal was sentenced to four
months in prison on Tuesday, a punishment the judge said was
less than drug dealers get in less significant cases.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston approved a plea deal that
will send BALCO head Victor Conte, 55, to prison for four
months and home for four months of confinement. She then
sentenced Greg Anderson, 39, baseball superstar Barry Bonds’
trainer, to three months prison and three months home
confinement for distributing steroids.

“They were cheating on those rules and you helped them do
that,” Illston told Conte, referring to professional athletes.

She said to Anderson, “You helped them cheat and that’s
just not right.”

BALCO owner Conte, his deputy, James Valente, 50, and
Anderson admitted guilt to steroid distribution in July in
pleas that knocked out almost all of the original charges.
Valente was given three years probation and fined $3,000.

News two years ago that BALCO was the source of a
previously undetectable steroid prompted an effort across many
sports to clamp down on performance-enhancing drugs.

The scandal sullied top sports names and raised questions
about achievements such as new baseball home run records.

The judge appeared to express frustration with the plea
deal that gave Conte only four months behind bars, punishment
she said was “way less significant than the consequences that I
mete out every single day for crimes that are far less
significant.”

The U.S. government unveiled the case with a splash in
February 2004 with a news conference by then U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft. At the time, U.S. officials said the
42-count indictment could result in many years of jail time.

At the sentencing, Judge Illston told the prosecution that
the way they handled the case “was wanting.”

CONTE VOWS TO HELP

After leaving court, Conte pledged to help clamp down on
doping in sports, but did not express regret for his own role.
His prison sentence begins December 1.

“It is important to fully acknowledge that the current
anti-doping programs are ineffective and this fact has
contributed to the use-or-lose mentality that exists today,” he
said, reading from a statement.

“Even the so-called gold-standard anti-doping programs
designed for Olympic-caliber athletes are ineffective, let
alone the more inept programs that exist in professional
sports.”

Since the BALCO scandal, track and field star Marion Jones
has faltered on the field and lost endorsement contracts, and
the Court of Arbitration for Sport is considering a lifetime
ban on former 100-meter world record holder Tim Montgomery.

Bonds’ close ties to trainer Anderson have caused ballpark
jeers as the slugger nears the all-time home run record.

So far, no athletes have been charged, but there are hints
that related cases continue to be investigated. Bonds’ former
girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, who has testified before a federal
grand jury, has said Bonds told her of his steroid use.

The attorney for Bonds, 41, the winner of a record seven
Most Valuable Player awards, has said he never knowingly used
steroids, but could have unknowingly used BALCO substances out
of trust in his boyhood friend and trainer Anderson.

“I’m very sorry for my actions,” Anderson told the judge.
“There has not been one minute when I intended to harm anyone.”

A fourth man in the BALCO case, Soviet-born track coach
Remi Korchemny, who has admitted to wrongly dispensing a
prescription drug, will be sentenced at a later date.