BALCO leak is admitted

SAN FRANCISCO -- Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters will avoid jail time under a plea agreement by a criminal defense lawyer who admitted leaking them secret grand jury documents from the BALCO steroids investigation.

In court papers filed yesterday in US District Court, attorney Troy Ellerman said he allowed reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada to view transcripts of the grand jury testimony of baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, and Gary Sheffield and sprinter Tim Montgomery.

Ellerman had represented Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the Burlingame supplements lab that allegedly provided performance-enhancing drugs to the elite athletes. He also represented BALCO vice president James Valente.

The Chronicle published stories in 2004 that reported Giambi and Montgomery admitted to the grand jury that they took steroids, while Bonds and Sheffield testified they didn't knowingly take the drugs.

A federal judge ordered the reporters jailed after they refused to divulge their source. They have remained free pending an appeal to the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, but Ellerman's plea deal states that federal prosecutors will no longer try to put the reporters in prison.

Ellerman agreed to plead guilty to four felony counts of obstruction of justice and disobeying court orders. He could spend up to two years in prison and pay a $250,000 fine. A judge still has to approve the terms of Ellerman's plea agreement; no sentencing date has been set. Ellerman, who is licensed to practice law in California, also faces disbarment.

"As we have said throughout, we don't discuss issues involving confidential sources," Williams and Fainaru-Wada said in a joint statement.

Ellerman's attorney, Scott Tedmon, could not immediately be reached.