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Trevor Graham's lawyer shuns prospect of plea deal
BY NATHANIEL VINTON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, April 23rd 2008, 8:55 PM
Sharpe/AP Track star Marion Jones and coach Trevor Graham analyze her long jump form by watching it on a video camera during practice at the N.C. State track on May 25, 1999.
An attorney for Trevor Graham, the track coach who once substantially aided the BALCO investigation but who is now charged with misleading government steroid cops, said Wednesday that his client is uninterested in a plea bargain such as the one Graham's former star pupil Marion Jones took.
"We have every expectation of being in trial with Mr. Graham on May 19," said Bill Keane, one of Graham's lawyers for the case, which is scheduled to begin on that day in a San Francisco federal courtroom.
With the trial less than a month away, Keane is trying to gain possession of documents that he believes could reveal important information about the witnesses and evidence the government plans to line up against his client.
The documents are in the hands of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, a non-governmental organization. Citing various legal privileges, USADA has resisted sharing the documents, but gave Graham's lawyers a privilege log outlining the contents of the material.
In a hearing tomorrow, Graham's legal team will try to persuade U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston to compel USADA to turn over the material, or else force prosecutors to subpoena them. The prosecutors would then have to share the material with the defense.
The USADA documents apparently include notes from interviews with a known steroid dealer named Angel Guillermo Heredia and with Jones' ex-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter. The privilege log also indicates USADA interviews with drug-stained sprinters such as Calvin Harrison, Michelle Collins and Jerome Young. USADA also claims to have five pages related to anonymous tips, including one that came from the e-mail address "track_tipster@yahoo.com" and was addressed to both USADA's president and BALCO-raiding IRS agent Jeff Novitzky.
Ironically, Graham was once USADA's best friend. In 2003, he anonymously sent a steroid-laced syringe to the Colorado-based organization, which passed it along to an accredited anti-doping laboratory in California. There, anti-doping chemist Don Catlin was able to identify the mysterious chemicals, which were being moved through the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, already under surveillance by Novitzky at the time.
But in November of 2006, long after he was revealed as the syringe mailer, the Jamaican-born Graham was indicted on three counts of making false statements to a government agency. The charges arose from an interview Graham gave to two IRS criminal investigators (again, Novitzky was on the case) who visited him in North Carolina in June of 2004. Graham was promised immunity conditional upon telling the truth.
Graham pleaded not guilty, like many of the BALCO figures have done. Only one of them, cyclist Tammy Thomas, has pushed her pleas of innocence all the way to a jury of her peers. She was convicted earlier this month of perjury and obstruction of justice. She is due for sentencing on July 25.
Barry Bonds, still not signed with any major league team, is awaiting a trial too.
BY NATHANIEL VINTON
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Wednesday, April 23rd 2008, 8:55 PM
Sharpe/AP Track star Marion Jones and coach Trevor Graham analyze her long jump form by watching it on a video camera during practice at the N.C. State track on May 25, 1999. An attorney for Trevor Graham, the track coach who once substantially aided the BALCO investigation but who is now charged with misleading government steroid cops, said Wednesday that his client is uninterested in a plea bargain such as the one Graham's former star pupil Marion Jones took.
"We have every expectation of being in trial with Mr. Graham on May 19," said Bill Keane, one of Graham's lawyers for the case, which is scheduled to begin on that day in a San Francisco federal courtroom.
With the trial less than a month away, Keane is trying to gain possession of documents that he believes could reveal important information about the witnesses and evidence the government plans to line up against his client.
The documents are in the hands of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, a non-governmental organization. Citing various legal privileges, USADA has resisted sharing the documents, but gave Graham's lawyers a privilege log outlining the contents of the material.
In a hearing tomorrow, Graham's legal team will try to persuade U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston to compel USADA to turn over the material, or else force prosecutors to subpoena them. The prosecutors would then have to share the material with the defense.
The USADA documents apparently include notes from interviews with a known steroid dealer named Angel Guillermo Heredia and with Jones' ex-husband, shot putter C.J. Hunter. The privilege log also indicates USADA interviews with drug-stained sprinters such as Calvin Harrison, Michelle Collins and Jerome Young. USADA also claims to have five pages related to anonymous tips, including one that came from the e-mail address "track_tipster@yahoo.com" and was addressed to both USADA's president and BALCO-raiding IRS agent Jeff Novitzky.
Ironically, Graham was once USADA's best friend. In 2003, he anonymously sent a steroid-laced syringe to the Colorado-based organization, which passed it along to an accredited anti-doping laboratory in California. There, anti-doping chemist Don Catlin was able to identify the mysterious chemicals, which were being moved through the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, already under surveillance by Novitzky at the time.
But in November of 2006, long after he was revealed as the syringe mailer, the Jamaican-born Graham was indicted on three counts of making false statements to a government agency. The charges arose from an interview Graham gave to two IRS criminal investigators (again, Novitzky was on the case) who visited him in North Carolina in June of 2004. Graham was promised immunity conditional upon telling the truth.
Graham pleaded not guilty, like many of the BALCO figures have done. Only one of them, cyclist Tammy Thomas, has pushed her pleas of innocence all the way to a jury of her peers. She was convicted earlier this month of perjury and obstruction of justice. She is due for sentencing on July 25.
Barry Bonds, still not signed with any major league team, is awaiting a trial too.