Government agent Jeff Novitzky has been at the forefront of the investigation into steroid use in sports ever since the early days of BALCO. However, due to his actions, Victor Conte received very little punishment and the repeatedly rescheduled Barry Bonds trial may never see the inside of a courtroom.
I quote from the voluminous work of reporter Jonathan Littman during this piece.
How did he get his start and how did he initially go over the line?
“In 2002 Novitzky was an unknown IRS agent with no experience in leading drug investigations when he began rooting around in Victor Conte's BALCO garbage. Novitzky never obtained a warrant and told a grand jury that he saw no need to do so as the garbage was on public property. By the summer and fall of 2003, veteran drug agents themselves raised questions about the obsessed investigator. Two agents working on the case knew that Novitzky "hated" Bonds, and heard him brag about his hopes to cash in on a book deal. The agents demanded to see copies of his reports and were rebuffed by federal officials. Novitzky, however, was given carte blanche by the head of the IRS to drop the normal duties of an IRS agent -- investigating tax fraud and money laundering -- and became our de facto national sports doping czar.”
What happened during the raid at BALCO?
“Television stations had been tipped off to both raids, putting local undercover drug agents at risk.”
According to the book “Game of Shadows”, people in the offices at the time of the raid were told that they were free to leave, but agents had their guns drawn. And according to the New York Daily News, Victor Conte claims that his confession in a back room of BALCO during the raid was fabricated. Was it? We will never know, as his words were not recorded.
What happened after the raid on Greg Anderson’s house?
Per Jonathan Littman, Novitzky was the target of a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) investigation due to a missing $600 seized during the raid on Barry Bonds’ former trainer Greg Anderson. He was also investigated due to:
“Allegations by other drug task force agents that in connection with the BALCO case, Novitzky had falsified reports and search warrants and had refused to bring in agencies more suited to probe potential drug violations. In addition, Novitzky gave a different account of his interest in a book deal to TIGTA investigators than he did under penalty of perjury in the courtroom of Judge Susan Illston – the same judge presiding over the Bonds case. “The TIGTA investigation ended with an explanation that neither exonerated Novitzky nor determined guilt: “Solvability factors are not present and do not justify any continued investigation.”
What did this do to BALCO head Victor Conte’s trial?
Victor Conte’s defense attorneys discovered that the TIGTA investigation had occurred, and used it as leverage to get a plea deal with very little punishment for his misdeeds while running BALCO - four months in jail, four months of house arrest and probation. The forty-two counts against Conte were reduced to one count of distributing steroids and one count of laundering $100, and he did not have to testify in any future trials.
In his pursuit of Barry Bonds, what happened at Quest Laboratories?
They let their version of the ends justify the mean get in the way of following the law.
“His 2004 search of Major League baseball testing records was fully investigated, and found to be a blatant trespass of Fourth Amendment rights against unlawful search and seizure by multiple district courts and two opinions of the Ninth Circuit of the Court of Appeals. Novitzky only had a warrant for ten records, but as the court of appeals opinion states, "When the warrant was executed, however, the government seized and promptly reviewed the drug testing records for hundreds of players in Major League Baseball (and a great many other people). That wasn't the only violation. Once Novitzky had the illegally seized larger database, he then concocted a "list" of baseball players who had allegedly failed baseballs' anonymous testing in 2003. That list was then leaked to the media.”
Judge Susan Illston concurs, and she also condemned Novitzky’s actions and questioned his veracity. In December 2004, Illston quashed the subpoenas served on Quest, ruling that the government’s conduct was unreasonable. Nothing better than antagonizing the judge who will be presiding over the Bonds case!
What punishment did Novitzky receive?
None. He was “promoted” to work as a senior investigator with the FDA.
What was the Department of Justice’s reaction to this week’s Ninth Circuit ruling that re-affirmed earlier condemnations of their actions?
The Department of Justice decided late last week not to appeal the Ninth Circuit Court ruling to the Supreme Court. So, the evidence seized illegally by Novitzky and his team at Quest Laboratories will not be admissible in trial this coming March. So, we as citizens have borne the cost of Novitzky’s violation of the limits of his warrant and the decisions of a federal judge. The meter is still running, and the total cost of the Bonds saga is approaching $ 100 million.
What does all this mean for the average citizen – not just baseball fans?
“The Novitzky saga is certain to become a model of how not to do a computer search for tens of thousands of federal, state and local agents and police. The court appended to its ruling strict new guidelines on future seizures of computerized evidence, writing: "Government intrusions into large private databases thus have the potential to expose exceedingly sensitive information about countless individuals not implicated in any criminal activity, who might not even know that the information about them has been seized and thus can do nothing to protect their privacy."
People’s rights to the privacy of their medical records will be maintained. The government will not be able to pour through employee assistance plans for drug leads and “out” workers simply trying to get help for their addiction. People’s safety with regard to unrestricted government snooping into computers without probable cause and a valid warrant will be upheld. And people will be less likely to trust big government and its ever expansive agenda.
Where do we go from here?
It is hard to say whether this is the end of Agent Novitzky's Javert-like actions. He could try one last attempt to pressure trainer Greg Anderson to testify about alleged steroid tests that Bonds failed. But, Anderson has already spent time in jail and has refusal to cooperate with the government in U.S. v. Bonds.
Why? His pure animus for Novitzky. Prosecutors have threatened Anderson’s mother-in-law with tax penalties, in January of 2009, IRS agents led a raid against Anderson's mother-in-law in an attempt to force him to testify against Bonds and the government purportedly reneged on a plea deal set up by Anderson’s attorney Mark Gearagos. Even the threats of additional jail time for Susan McDougal eventually finally ended!
The government backed out on the eve of the first Barry Bonds trial in early 2009. The Barry Bonds perjury trial is set for March 21, 2011, with Jeff Novitzky as the star witness for the prosecution. Will the trial finally happen? Don't hold your breath. Once again, I recommend that you read all of the investigative work of Jonathan Littman regarding U.S. v. Bonds and decide who is a bigger public menace – Barry Bonds orJeff Novtizky.
Postscript...
Let’s remember what Bonds is accused of doing. No. he is not charged with the illegal possession of controlled substances, he is charged with perjury due to his grand jury testimony from six years ago regarding the use of “the Clear – THG. But “the Clear” was not deemed an illegal substance at the time the government was pursuing Bonds. So Bonds is being charged with perjury by federal prosecutors for talking about a legal substance based on evidence illegally obtained in the execution of a search warrant?
And a personal note - In the long ago past I wrote a column regarding Bonds which resulted in a member of the San Francisco District Attorney's office staff contacting a reporter who had written a similar story to ask who I was and did he know where I got the ideas and facts used in the article.
Good God!
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