When feds file charges, they mean it

By JEFF JARDINE
jjardine@modbee.com

last updated: July 24, 2008 01:48:03 PM

For about two years, investigators dragged witness after witness before federal grand juries in the BALCO steroids case, indicting and convicting several athletes, trainers and suppliers.

But what they really wanted was to build their case against Barry Bonds, who enhanced himself with steroids to enhance baseball's all-time and single-season home run records, then allegedly lied about it to the grand jury.

The bottom line in these cases is that the feds rarely seek these indictments until they're pretty much ironclad. They take whatever time they deem necessary because they don't like to lose.

Nor are they particularly fond of defendants who plead, say, not guilty or otherwise exercise their rights. When Bonds' attorneys found flaws in the original 14-count indictment and got it dismissed, the feds rewrote it, added a 15th "take that, Barry" charge and refiled. And that's against a professional athlete who can hire the best attorneys $16 million a year can buy.

So you can imagine the odds against exoneration for anyone named in the indictments announced Tuesday in the cases involving a Denair motorcycle shop owner and his son, various motorcycle gang members, a Stanislaus County sheriff's captain, a retired bailiff and several others.

All you need to know about their chances can be found in the last page of the government's press release, which lists the potential maximum penalties. It says that the suspects' punishment and fines are subject to federal sentencing guidelines that include a variety of factors.

That is followed by an afterthought -- the "oh, by the way" disclaimer:

"The charges are only allegations, and the defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt."

Except that the feds seldom leave much doubt when they indict you.

They accused Stanislaus County sheriff's Capt. Raul DeLeon of lying to investigators who questioned him about former Stanislaus County deputy and Road Dog Cycle shop owner Bob Holloway, the target of an investigation into racketeering and other charges.

The same goes for sheriff's deputy David Swanson and Stephen J. Johnson of Linden, also indicted on suspicion of lying -- in Johnson's case, allegedly to a federal grand jury.

The charges against Holloway, his son and six others include racketeering, witness tampering, soliciting to commit a violent crime, extortions, conspiracy, running a chop shop -- none of which you can plead out to in exchange for 200 hours of community service. They're facing some serious time (oh, by the way, if convicted).

Among other things, the feds charge that Holloway's Denair business was a meeting and perhaps breeding ground for "outlaw" biker groups such as the Hells Angels, Jus Brothers and the Alky Haulers, to name a few.

These, by the way, are the same biker groups that showed up at a recent Modesto City Council meeting to support Most Envied, a motorcycle club that claims Modesto police are harassing members because they're primarily Latinos.

The feds also claim Holloway and his cohorts fenced stolen parts and motorcycles, and used muscle to get customers to pay their balances.

The government built its cases using wiretaps, interviews, raids, seized evidence and grand jury testimony. And while the feds won't provide specifics, I suspect they also dropped a few well-placed hints about their raids or operations -- a trail of bread crumbs, so to speak -- to see which of those charged would leak the info to Holloway.

The odds of winning convictions are clearly on the side of the feds. When former Teamsters Union President Ron Carey was acquitted of perjury charges in federal court in 2001, it was the exception rather than the norm.

They nailed top White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby for leaking the name of a CIA operative.

Former Olympic sprinting champion Marion Jones is doing prison time for lying to federal prosecutors about her use of performance-enhancing drugs, and former cyclist Tammy Thomas is scheduled to be sentenced Friday after being convicted on three counts of perjury and one of obstructing justice in the steroid probe.

The latter two cases are considered blueprints for convictions against Bonds. And if someone with his financial resources is expected to go to jail, the smart money isn't on a few former deputies and some bikers to beat their respective raps.

Oh, and by the way, they're innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and the feds seldom make their move until they've obliterated that.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at jjardine@modbee.com or 578-2383.

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