Sports

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP / BCN) ― Former elite cyclist Tammy Thomas was convicted Friday afternoon of lying to a federal grand jury investigating a Bay Area steroid distribution ring that has implicated some of the biggest stars in baseball, football and track.

Thomas, the first figure connected to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative - or BALCO - to go to trial, shouted at the 12-member San Francisco jury, who found her guilty of three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. Thomas was acquitted of two counts of perjury.

"I already had one career taken away from me," she yelled at jurors. "Look me in the eye. You can't do it."

Her father, who has sat in the front row of court during the trial, also raised his voice and said, "They can't do it."

Thomas then turned to federal prosecutors Matthew Parrella and Jeff Nedrow and shouted, "You like to destroy people's lives."

Parella and Nedrow quickly left the courtroom and offered no comment on the verdict. Jurors also had no comment afterwards.

Outside the courthouse, Thomas' lawyer Ethan Balogh said he was "tremendously disappointed by the jury's decision."

"It is difficult for all of us who went through this trial," added Balogh, who indicated that he may consider an appeal.

Legal experts said Thomas faces a prison sentence of between six months and several years, based on federal sentencing guidelines. She is scheduled to be sentenced July 18 in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston.

Thomas was accusedby prosecutors of lying when she told the grand jury investigating the Burlingame-based BALCO in 2003 that she never took anabolic steroids and that she did not receive any products from chemist Patrick Arnold except a then-legal hormonal stimulant.
 
However, Arnold testified at the trial last week that he had supplied Thomas with steroids. He stated that he personally mailed the steroid THG to Thomas at least once.
 
Thomas, 38, now a law student in Oklahoma, won a silver medal in the World Track Cycling Championship in Belgium in 2001.

However, Thomas was banned from cycling for life in August 2002 after the performance-enhancing drug Norbolethone was detected in her urine.

The drug, once an obscure steroid used in human tests in the 1960s, was rediscovered by Arnold, who supplied BALCO with undetectable performance-enhancing drugs. He pleaded guilty in 2006 to drug charges and was sentenced to three months in prison.

During the cyclist's seven day trial, jurors heard testimony that ranged from arcane discussions of human hormone science to detailed and deeply personal descriptions of how Thomas' body apparently changed after she took the substances.

Dr. Margaret Wierman, an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado, testified that when she examined Thomas in 2000, she observed masculine body features.

"My recollection was that when I examined her, she had specific signs of evidence of a full beard" and other features, including male-pattern balding, diminished breasts and unusual patterns of hair on her chest and arms, Wierman said.

She also said she observed Thomas' deep voice, and wondered whether that would reverse itself later.

Thomas was the first figure connected to BALCO to go to trial.

Eight others, including track diva Marion Jones and BALCO founder Victor Conte, have pleaded guilty to various charges involving perjury, drug and money laundering and were given short prison sentences.
 
The federal government steroids probe has ensnared a number of other
elite athletes, including home run king Barry Bonds and former San Francisco 49er Dana Stubblefield. Investigators are now also looking into whether pitcher Roger Clemens lied when he told Congress he never used performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds was charged with perjury for allegedly lying to the same grand jury as Thomas about never knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs.

Legal experts said Thomas' trial offered Bonds' lawyers a preview of what kind of evidence the slugger will face if his case goes to trial as expected. Two of Bonds' attorneys, for instance, watched the government's lead steroids investigator testify.

The investigator, IRS agent Jeff Novitzky, is expected to play a starring role for the government during Bonds' trial, which isn't expected to begin until next year.

Novitzky testified that Thomas' lies hindered the federal investigation of Arnold. Prosecutors said they had wanted to indict the drug maker in 2003 but had to wait another three years to amass more evidence because of the cyclist's perjured testimony.

Balogh argued to the jury during closing arguments in the trial that Thomas had been one of many successful athletes targeted by an over-zealous Novitzky.

Balogh said Novitzky had already gathered "a mountain of evidence" against BALCO's Conte, Arnold and others related to the investigation -- but "sickened" by the cheating of well-known and highly paid athletes, Novitzky "forced them to come before the grand jury to confess
their sins."
 
The BALCO investigation eventually included indictments of 11 people.

Among them was track coach Trevor Graham, who helped spur the original BALCO investigation when he mailed a vial of Arnold's designer drug also called "the clear" to the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency. 

Graham has pleaded not guilty to lying to federal agents about giving steroids to athletes and his trial in San Francisco federal court is scheduled to begin May 19.

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