A Colorado lawyer pleaded guilty Thursday to obstructing justice by leaking secret grand jury documents to two reporters covering the government’s probe of steroids in sports.
Troy Ellerman of Woodland Park agreed to be sent to prison for as long as two years and fined up to $250,000 for the convictions.
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White isn’t bound by the plea agreement and said he hasn’t decided whether to accept it. White said he could impose as much as a 15-year prison term at Ellerman’s sentencing, set for June 14.
“The charges cut to the very core of our criminal justice system,” the judge said. “This represents a corruption of our system by a member of the bar and by an officer of the court.”
Ellerman, 44, also is likely to lose his license to practice law. He declined comment.
At varying times, he represented two defendants in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid lab investigation and was privy to sensitive grand jury testimony that he leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle.
After the guilty plea in San Francisco, federal prosecutors announced they dropped their case against reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, who were facing prison sentences of up to 18 months for refusing to divulge their source.
“It’s great not to have to go to prison – it’s great for our families,” Williams said.
Ellerman admitted he let Fainaru-Wada view transcripts of the grand jury testimony of baseball stars Barry Bonds, Jason Giambi, Gary Sheffield and sprinter Tim Montgomery. Fainaru-Wada and Williams used those notes to write several newspaper stories and a book that reported Giambi and Montgomery admitted to grand jurors they took steroids, while Bonds and Sheffield testified they didn’t knowingly take the drugs.
Prosecutors said a “previously unknown witness” approached the FBI and offered to help prove that Ellerman was the source of the leak. Larry McCormack, former executive director of the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame in Colorado Springs and a private investigator who briefly worked for BALCO founder Victor Conte, said he tipped off FBI agents.
Ellerman represented Conte and BALCO vice president James Valente.
