SAN FRANCISCO - The vice president of BALCO Laboratories told federal investigators last year that San Francisco Giants star Barry Bonds tried the company's new performance-enhancing drugs but didn't like how one of them made him feel - just one of many allegations included in revelatory documents disclosed by the government late Friday.
According to the investigator's report, James Valente alleged that Bonds received "the clear" and "the cream" - code names for the steroid THG and a testosterone cream - from BALCO "on a couple of occasions." Bonds, according to the memorandum, did not like how "the clear" made him feel.
Valente also alleged that New York Yankees stars Jason Giambi and Gary Sheffield took steroids, according to an investigator's account of an interview with the BALCO executive.
Greg Anderson, Bonds' personal trainer, told investigators he gave steroids to a group of baseball players he called "my little guys" - including former Giants Benito Santiago, Marvin Benard, Bobby Estalella and Armando Rios.
The names are contained in accounts of interviews with Valente and Anderson in September 2003, when Internal Revenue Service agents searched BALCO's Burlingame, Calif., headquarters and Anderson's car and condominium. The government made the documents public as part of a rebuttal to a defense motion alleging that the rights of the accused were violated.
Valente and Anderson are charged with supplying illegal, performance-enhancing drugs to elite athletes, as are BALCO President Victor Conte Jr. and Castro Valley track coach Remi Korchemny.
Breaking a yearlong silence, Conte disputed the memorandum's contents. The agent's account alleged Conte confessed to giving drugs to 27 athletes, including Bonds and track star Marion Jones.
"I have never given Barry Bonds anabolic steroids," Conte said Friday night. "I have never even had a discussion with Bonds about anabolic steroids. Anyone who says anything differently is not telling the truth."
Conte's attorney, Bob Holley, said Friday night that the disclosed documents would be used in a call to dismiss the case.
"The government's massive release of confidential information, which should have been placed under seal, is another outrage which militates toward the defense's inability to receive a fair trial in this case," he said.
