SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― The largest federal criminal investigation into sports doping began more than nine years ago with a tax agent digging through the trash of the now notorious Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. Barring an appeal, the government’s work comes to an anti-climactic end Friday when Barry Bonds ― the probe’s highest-profile catch ― is sentenced for obstruction of justice.
In between, the federal government spent millions of dollars and untold staff hours obtaining the convictions of 11 people. Six of them, including track star Marion Jones, were ensnared for lying to grand jurors, federal investigators or the court. Five men, including Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges stemming from their BALCO connections.
The investigation in general ― and the pursuit of Bonds in particular ― ignited a debate over whether the government’s long involvement was the best use of public resources.
More than seven years after he testified before a grand jury investigating BALCO, Major League Baseball’s all-time home runs leader was convicted on just one of four remaining counts against him. And the jury deadlocked on whether Bonds lied about taking performance enhancing drugs.
Barry Bonds will have 14 days after his sentencing to file a notice of appeal. (UPI-Yonhap News)
Now, federal sentencing guidelines suggest a prison term of between 15 months and 21 months. But federal probation officers are recommending that Bonds receive no time, citing his charitable work, the nature of the crime and his otherwise spotless criminal record. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has sentenced two other BALCO figures convicted of similar crimes to probation and house arrest.
Was it all worth it?
“It absolutely was,” said MacGregor Scott, the former U.S. attorney for Sacramento, now in private practice at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. “It brought a focus and awareness to the steroids issue that wasn’t there before.”
Scott said prosecutors had to go after Bonds once they concluded he lied to the grand jury when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and said he allowed only doctors to inject him. Dozens of other athletes testified truthfully, Scott said.
“There aren’t two sets of laws, one for Bonds and one for everybody else,” Scott said. “The grand jury is the bedrock of the criminal justice system in the United States.”
The probe did lead directly to former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell’s in-depth investigation of drug use in Major League Baseball and his seminal Mitchell Report, which in turn prompted MLB and its players’ union to strengthen their steroids policy.
