Anderson attorney says he will refuse to testify before new grand jury

By Julia Cheever, Bay City News Service

July 21, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - A lawyer for personal trainer Greg Anderson said today that Anderson would refuse to testify before a new grand jury in San Francisco that will be looking into allegations of possible perjury stemming from a sports steroids investigation.

Attorney Mark Geragos said Anderson, 40, of Burlingame, was handed a subpoena from the grand jury as he was released from a federal prison in Dublin on Thursday.

Anderson, whose clients include San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds, spent 15 days in prison for contempt of court for refusing to testify before a previous grand jury. He was released because that panel's term expired.

Geragos said, "Nothing has changed. He is not going to testify."

The subpoena summoned Anderson to testify on July 27 before the new panel, the attorney said.

Anderson is one of four people indicted in 2004 in a sports steroids scandal centered on the Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO.

Anderson pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiring to give anabolic steroids to athletes and money laundering and was sentenced to three months in jail and three months of home detention.

A number of athletes, including Bonds, testified before a grand jury in that probe, but none was charged with crimes.

Geragos said Anderson's refusal to testify before the new grand jury will be based on a "variety of reasons," including three arguments that the trainer presented in opposition to the previous subpoena.

Those arguments are that his plea agreement did not require him to cooperate with future probes; that the current investigation is based on an allegedly illegal wiretap; and that a government inquiry into previous leaks of grand jury information should be completed before more testimony is demanded.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup rejected those claims on July 5, found Anderson in contempt of court and ordered him imprisoned, saying, "This is meant to encourage you to change your mind."

Geragos said he plans to file new papers opposing the latest subpoena before Thursday.

Anderson's bid to resist the new subpoena will apparently be heard by a different judge.

Geragos said he has been informed Alsup is no longer the general duty judge, who would handle matters such as subpoena disputes. The court's Web site lists U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White as the general duty judge for the remainder of July.

U.S. attorney's office spokesman Luke Macaulay said today he could not comment on the case or on the new grand jury.

U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said on Thursday that "the ongoing steroid-related investigation" would continue to pursue "some unanswered questions" remaining in the case.

At a hearing on July 5, Alsup said the details of the grand jury investigation are secret, but said the panel is looking into the truthfulness of previous grand jury testimony by "several athletes, some of whom are Greg Anderson's clients."

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