I hate to admit it but sometimes I have to be a papparazzi, photographing people at times when they don't want to be photographed. (Usually when they've screwed up)

That was the case on this story. A local lab was being investigated by the grand jury for tax evasion and illegal drug manufacturing. In the course of the investigation, it was discovered that a number of well known pro athletes had done business with this lab. The grand jury wanted testimony from these athletes so they were subpoened to come in and testify.

Cameras are not allowed in the Federal Building in SF so our only option was to wait outside the garage entrance and shoot them as they drove by.

On this day, 6 athletes were testifying which meant standing outside all day peering into each car that entered the garage. The Chronicle sent three of us to cover this. One photog was stationed outside the main entrance, Fred Larson and I were in the driveway entrance. Fred was on the passenger side, I took the other and we waited for our prey.

It was pretty boring, mostly just standing around waiting but when a car approached carrying an athlete, I have to admit, it was fun trying to catch a clean image of the athlete. The relections on the closed windows made it tough as you can see in the next image which was taken just moments before the above photo. That's Fred by the way (above) shooting Oakland Raider's Bill Romanowski.

Romanowski, 37, is considered important to the investigation being headed by the Internal Revenue Service because of his association with the lab -- including introducing other athletes and coaches to the lab's "services" -- and the fact he tested positive last month for the designer steroid THG.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said that this particular lab is the source of THG, previously unknown to testing officials.

Below, Fred and Ricky, a camera operator for one of the local TV stations take a quick sidewalk lunchbreak. We didn't know when the athletes would appear so we couldn't leave the scene for lunch. At left is Jeff Chiu from Associated Press sending his photos from his laptop.

< Back