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The federal appeals court ruling against the government Wednesday in the long running Major League Baseball drug-testing case has several far-reaching ramifications. The decision means that leaking the names of steroid-tainted players to Sports Illustrated and The New York Times likely constituted crimes, and that an investigation could be launched to identify the leakers. It also means that the blockbuster revelations about steroid cheating by Alex Rodriguez(notes), Sammy Sosa(notes), Manny Ramirez(notes) and David Ortiz(notes) were based on evidence gathered in an illegal search by lead BALCO investigating agent Jeff Novitzky. Unless the Ninth Circuit decision is successfully appealed to the...

SAN FRANCISCO, (AP) -- A San Francisco jury has found former cyclist Tammy Thomas guilty of lying to a grand jury about her steroids use. The first person in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative investigation to go to trial, Thomas was convicted Friday of three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The jury acquitted her of two counts of perjury.

Former cycling champion Tammy Thomas seemed to be in the midst of shaving her face when an Olympic drug tester paid her an unannounced visit in 2002, according to testimony Wednesday in her trial on perjury charges. Tom McVay, a tester for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, told a jury in U.S. District Court in San Francisco that on March 14, 2002, he was assigned to locate Thomas at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, east of San Diego, and collect a urine sample for a steroid test. The visit was memorable, McVay said, because of Thomas' appearance when she...

Caught up in the BALCO steroids scandal, an elite athlete adamantly denies using banned drugs, then mounts an aggressive defense to a perjury indictment. It sounds like the case of former Giants slugger Barry Bonds, accused of lying under oath to the federal grand jury that investigated Burlingame's Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid ring in 2003.Instead, starting today in federal court in San Francisco, a lesser-known American sports champion - Tammy Thomas, a onetime star of bicycle track racing - goes on trial, charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. Her case is of interest because it amounts to a...

Political insiders have long been wondering how Rep. Nancy Pelosi would mark Barry Bonds breaking of Hank Aaron's home run record. Pelosi represents San Francisco, where Bonds plays baseball with the Giants, but recent allegations of Bonds' doping have brought into question Pelosi's support of the historic milestone. But, today, Pelosi issue a statement on Bonds' achievement: "Tonight, Barry Bonds etched his name into baseball's history books and took his rightful place among sport's immortals," Pelosi said. "It was a great night for baseball and a great night for San Francisco -- the crowd went wild. It was particular exciting...

Barry Bonds hits #756

The abrupt departure of San Francisco's top federal prosecutor may delay a decision on whether Giants star Barry Bonds will be indicted for perjury in the BALCO steroids case, legal experts said. Scott Schools, acting U.S. attorney since February, said Wednesday that he would leave his post as early as July 13 to work as a county prosecutor in his native South Carolina. Several informed sources said the Bush administration hopes to replace him with veteran San Francisco lawyer Joseph Russoniello, who served as U.S. attorney here in the 1980s. Just as Schools leaves, the 2-year-old Bonds perjury probe will...

Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters will avoid jail time after a criminal defense lawyer pleaded guilty Wednesday to leaking them secret grand jury documents from the BALCO steroids investigation. Troy Ellerman admitted allowing 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, according to court documents. The Chronicle published stories in 2004 that reported Giambi and Montgomery admitted taking steroids while Bonds and Sheffield testified that they didn't knowingly take performance enhancing drugs. A federal judge ordered the reporters jailed after they...

51 minutes ago MILWAUKEE - Barry Bonds hit his 734th career home run Saturday night, breaking Hank Aaron's NL record in the same city where the Hall of Fame slugger started and ended his major league career. The San Francisco Giants star hit a 1-0 pitch from Milwaukee's Chris Capuano over the right-center fence in the third inning, just out of the reach of outfielders Brady Clark and Corey Hart. Bonds, who hit No. 733 and drove in a season-high six runs Friday night, is 21 homers shy of Aaron's career mark of 755. It was Bonds' 26th home run...

A federal judge expressed sympathy Friday for two Chronicle reporters facing subpoenas for their sources of grand jury testimony about steroids in sports, but he said legal precedent works against their request to keep those sources secret. "I think that you have a very compelling argument'' that courts should recognize a right of journalists to protect their sources, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White told the reporters' lawyer, Jonathan Donnellan, near the end of a hearing in San Francisco that lasted almost two hours. White observed that most states and an increasing number of foreign nations have adopted laws to protect...

A dispute between the Justice Department and The Chronicle over the use of grand jury testimony in stories about athletes' steroid use will come to a showdown today in a San Francisco federal courtroom. Federal prosecutors will ask a judge to order reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams to reveal who leaked star players' admissions that they had taken illegal performance-enhancing drugs. The reporters and the newspaper have also been served with subpoenas for grand jury transcripts and any documents that would reveal the source or sources. If the judge refuses to dismiss the subpoenas and orders the reporters to...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Members of the grand jury investigating baseball's Barry Bonds for perjury and tax evasion arrived at the federal courthouse Thursday for what could be their final day of work. Mark Geragos, attorney for Bonds' personal trainer, told The Associated Press his client would be released later in the day from federal prison, where Greg Anderson was sent more than two weeks ago after he refused to testify to the grand jury. The judge said Anderson was to be held until he agreed to testify against Bonds or the grand jury's term expired, and the panel's term...

Lawyers for Barry Bonds' personal trainer say he'd rather go back to prison for a third time than take part in the grand jury investigation of his childhood friend for tax evasion and perjury. Fresh off a 15-day jail term for refusing to cooperate in an earlier phase of the probe, Greg Anderson is expected to be called Thursday before a new grand jury investigating the San Francisco Giants slugger. But the trainer is expected to renew his vow of silence. "He's resigned to do whatever it takes to maintain his integrity," said Paula Canny, an attorney and close friend...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal prosecutors asked a judge today to order two Chronicle reporters to identify their source of grand jury testimony about star athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs, saying the journalists are the only available sources of the information and have no legal right to withhold it. "The criminal violations here strike at the very heart of the secrecy of grand jury proceedings and the integrity of the judicial system,'' lawyers from the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles said in papers arguing for enforcement of subpoenas against the two reporters. They were referring to the illegal disclosure of...

Barry Bonds dropped his lawsuit against two San Francisco Chronicle reporters who published a book claiming the San Francisco Giants slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. Bonds requested that San Francisco County Superior Court dismiss the lawsuit June 2, according to court records reviewed by the San Jose Mercury News. The suit was dismissed without prejudice, meaning he retains the right to refile it. In March, Bonds sued Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, publisher Gotham books, the Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published an excerpt of the book, "Game of Shadows." Bonds' lawyers, suing under California's unfair...

SAN FRANCISCO - The San Francisco Chronicle is filing a legal motion today to quash federal subpoenas that call on two reporters to identify the source of grand jury testimony they reported in articles about the use of performance-enhancing drugs by Barry Bonds and other star athletes. If the law was bent or broken by the leaking of the testimony, the motion argues, that damage was more than balanced by the benefits of the articles, which revealed the biggest sports scandal in a generation and led to action by Congress and Major League Baseball. [Hearst general counsel Eve Burton explains...

Barry Bonds was in Milwaukee recently and the commissioner of baseball wouldn’t make the 10-minute drive from his house to watch him. So it follows that Bud Selig wasn’t in when Bonds moved past Babe Ruth on the home run list. Nor were any of Ruth’s children. Nor any high-level officials. Nor anybody whose presence screamed, “I’m important, so I’m here.” Barry Bonds hit his 715th home run Sunday. But every overblown ESPN news break-in couldn’t drown out the sad reality of the moment. It was as awkward as it was historical. Some wanted to watch. Most wanted to cover...

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds' lawyer says he'll ask a judge to order that the authors of a new book detailing the Giants' slugger's alleged use of steroids turn over any profits they make. Notice of the lawsuit came today in a letter from attorney Michael Rains' office to the agent for authors Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams. They are reporters for The Chronicle and authors of the book "Game of Shadows." The book, published today, concerns the Bay Area laboratory known as BALCO and the athletes, including Bonds, who allegedly were illicitly supplied with performance-enhancing drugs. According to the...

This narrative is based on more than a thousand pages of documents and interviews with more than 200 people, many of whom we spoke to repeatedly. In our reporting on the BALCO story for the San Francisco Chronicle, we obtained transcripts of the secret grand jury testimony of Barry Bonds and seven other prominent professional athletes. We also reviewed confidential memorandums detailing federal agents' interviews with other athletes and trainers who had direct knowledge of BALCO. Sealed material we reviewed also included unredacted versions of affidavits filed by the BALCO investigators; e-mail between BALCO owner Victor Conte and several athletes...

NEW YORK (SI.com) -- Beginning in 1998 with injections in his buttocks of Winstrol, a powerful steroid, Barry Bonds took a wide array of performance-enhancing drugs over at least five seasons in a massive doping regimen that grew more sophisticated as the years went on, according to Game of Shadows, a book written by two San Francisco Chronicle reporters at the forefront of reporting on the BALCO steroid distribution scandal. The authors, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, describe in sometimes day-to-day, drug-by-drug detail how often and how deeply Bonds engaged in the persistent doping. For instance, the authors write that...