{ Tammy Thomas } Cyclist's trial foreshadows Bonds' case

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/24/8 | Lance Williams

[SmithL]

Caught up in the BALCO steroids scandal, an elite athlete adamantly denies using banned drugs, then mounts an aggressive defense to a perjury indictment.

It sounds like the case of former Giants slugger Barry Bonds, accused of lying under oath to the federal grand jury that investigated Burlingame's Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroid ring in 2003.

Instead, starting today in federal court in San Francisco, a lesser-known American sports champion - Tammy Thomas, a onetime star of bicycle track racing - goes on trial, charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. Her case is of interest because it amounts to a dress rehearsal for the trial of Bonds, which may get under way later this year.

Like Bonds, Thomas told the BALCO grand jury that she had never used banned drugs - even when prosecutors confronted her with what they said were multiple positive steroid tests, court records show.

Also like Bonds, Thomas has insisted she is innocent and has refused to settle her case with a plea bargain.

Bonds and Thomas even filed identical technical challenges to the language of their indictments, forcing the government to rewrite the documents before proceeding.

Thomas' trial will feature the judge who also is presiding over the Bonds case, Susan Illston, and the same team of prosecutors, led by assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Parrella and Jeffrey Nedrow, who put together the case against Bonds.

And, for the first time, witnesses central to the BALCO scandal are likely to testify in public.

Key BALCO witnesses

...prosecutors claim they have more than enough evidence to prove that Thomas was a "hard-core" steroid user who lied repeatedly to the grand jury. They cited medical records suggesting that by 2000, she had developed a full beard and a deep voice from her use of the steroid depo-testosterone.

[SmithL]

Thomas, who was banned for life from cycling and now studies law, leaves court in San Francisco last year with attorney Tony Tamburello

[SmithL]

Illston, Susan Yvonne

Born 1948 in Tokyo, Japan

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Northern District of California
Nominated by William J. Clinton on January 23, 1995, to a seat vacated by Barbara A. Caulfield; Confirmed by the Senate on May 25, 1995, and received commission on May 26, 1995.

Education:
Duke University, B.A., 1970

Stanford Law School, J.D., 1973

Professional Career:
Private practice, Burlingame, California, 1973-1995

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Female

[miele man]

Here is a link to a pix of Thomas in 2002. Was she using steroids? Take a look. Ya think?
http://charles.pelkey.com/tammy.html

Sorry, I just haven’t learned to post a pix.

[SmithL]

Thanks:

Tammy Thomas in 2002

[Mr. Mojo]

Yikes! Seriously guilty.

[CholeraJoe]

Geez, Louise! She’s got five-o-clock shadow and male-pattern baldness in that pic. OTOH, she looks pretty hot in the more recent pic.

[SmithL]

I dunno. To me, it’s like comparing John Belushi with Michael Jackson.