SAN FRANCISCO -- The attorney who leaked grand jury
testimony of Barry Bonds and other elite athletes investigated for
steroid use agreed to a maximum sentence of two years and 9 months
in prison, nine months longer than his original plea bargain.
prosecutors said Troy Ellerman is willing to accept a 33-month
prison sentence after a judge last month rejected the original deal
of a 24-month maximum sentence as too lenient. Federal prosecutors also agreed to reduce the maximum fine he
faces to $60,000 from the $250,000 agreed to earlier. District Court Judge Jeffrey White, who rejected the earlier
deal, still must approve the new agreement when Ellerman returns to
court July 12. Ellerman's attorney Scott Tedmon said he will still argue that
his client should be sentenced to 15 months in prison -- an argument
that didn't persuade the judge last month. "We are trying to wrap this thing up without a lot of
litigation," Tedmon said. "We're trying to give the judge some
latitude." Ellerman pleaded guilty to allowing a newspaper reporter to view
confidential transcripts of grand jury testimony from Bonds, Jason
Giambi, Gary Sheffield and other athletes embroiled in the
government's steroids investigation. The 44-year-old Ellerman
initially blamed federal investigators for leaking the testimony. Ellerman was a successful Sacramento attorney when Victor Conte, founder of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, hired him
following the raid of the Burlingame nutritional supplements lab,
part of the government probe. Ellerman also later served as the attorney for BALCO vice
president James Valente and has copies of the grand jury testimony
being used to prosecute his clients. Ellerman allowed San Francisco
Chronicle reporter Mark Fainaru-Wada to view the players' grand
jury testimony, according to the plea agreement. Fainaru-Wada and fellow reporter Lance Williams then published
stories in 2004 reporting that Giambi and others had admitted using
steroids, while Bonds and Sheffield testified they didn't knowingly
take the drugs. The leaked testimony was featured prominently in
the writers' book "Game of Shadows," which recounts Bonds'
alleged use of steroids. After Ellerman pleaded guilty to four felony charges of
obstruction of justice and disobeying court orders in February,
prosecutors dropped their case against the two reporters. They had
faced up to 18 months in prison for refusing to divulge the source
of the leak. Ellerman was fired as commissioner of the Professional Rodeo
Cowboys Association and voluntarily gave up his California license
to practice law.