After appealing her perjury case which stemmed from lying to a grand jury, professional cyclist Tammy Thomas was unsuccessful in clearing her name. The San Fransisco’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the previous decision of the court. Thomas was convicted for three counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. The U.S. District Court under Judge Susan Illston sentenced her to 6 months of home confinement and 5 years of probation.

Thomas was one of the several professional athletes involved in the BALCO investigation. The athletes called in the BALCO case either pleaded guilty or convicted of using steroids and other performance enhancing drugs except for Barry Bonds who is still fighting his perjury case in court. Bonds maintained his position that the never knowingly ingested anabolic steroids.

The 3 judges of the Appeals Court unanimously rejected Thomas’ claim that her answer to the grand jury were literally truthful thus the conviction should be overturned. During the investigation, Thomas denied that he received anabolic steroids from Patrick Arnold of BALCO. Arnold is a chemist of the company who developed undetectable steroids which were sold to professional athletes. He pleaded guilty in 2006.

Thomas admitted that he got one legal drug from Arnold but not steroids and she told the grand jury that he never took any anabolic steroids. However, a failed test for steroids in 2001 proves that she was really taking performance enhancing drugs. She tested positive for norbolethone in a cycling competition in Belgium in 2001. She was banned from the sport for life in 2002.

Thomas’ lawyers argued that Arnold never “gave” their client with steroids because the drugs were supplied by Arnold’s girlfriend. They also claimed that the drug that she took was not included in the banned list during that time. Based on the court records, a testimony showed that Thomas contacted Arnold asking for steroids. The grand jury concluded that the word “gave” was also synonymous with supplied. It was also found out that the drugs were later identified by expert witnesses as anabolic steroids.

Judge Jay Bybee ruled that “a reasonable jury could conclude beyond a reasonable doubt” that Thomas understood the questions and answered falsely. They also upheld the previous court decision to allow trial testimony on the side of effects of steroids. “Evidence of the physical effects of Thomas’s alleged testosterone ingestion was highly material to the issue of whether Thomas knowingly used steroids,” said in the court ruling.

Some of the prominent people who were charged and convicted in the BALCO investigation were track coach Trevor Graham, Olympian track and field athlete Marion Jones and former Raiders lineman Dana Stubblefield. The court is expected to set the trial date on Barry Bonds’ case on Friday. His case was also delayed because of the appeal made by the prosecutors. However, the Appeals Court denied the inclusion of evidences without the testimony of his trainer, Greg Anderson. According to the prosecutors, those evidences will prove that Bonds used anabolic steroids. It includes Bond’s alleged positive test for steroids.

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