Charges Aren’t Dismissed; Conte to Tell Story to ABC

On the same day a federal judge refused to dismiss charges against four men accused of distributing steroids to top athletes, the head of the BALCO lab charged with distributing steroids vowed to tell all in an upcoming television interview.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said she was inclined to reject defense motions to dismiss charges against BALCO head Victor Conte and three others, although she would allow some hearings into how the government conducted the case.

The ruling comes in a case that has cast a cloud of suspicion over records set by Barry Bonds and other athletes in recent years. Her decision was in response to accusations that prosecutors illegally searched a nutritional-supplement laboratory and the house and car of the trainer for Bonds.

The judge spoke in a pre-trial hearing in which Conte’s lawyer Robert Holley said he did not know in advance that Conte had granted an interview to ABC’s “20/20” show, to be aired Friday.

“You didn’t know about this?” a surprised Illston asked.

“I didn’t even know about it until I read about it in the paper,” Holley told the court, suggesting some tension with his high-profile client.

Hockey

The NHL’s 30 general managers will meet with league representatives in New York today to be brought up to date on the 11-week-old lockout.

“It’s a chance for all of us to be in the same room,” King General Manager Dave Taylor said. “I don’t know if there is going to be a lot of news, but it will be an open forum where people can ask some questions.”

Taylor said “there is no indication” whether canceling the season will be discussed by NHL leaders.

Commissioner Gary Bettman reiterated Wednesday that there was no drop-dead date but said that time was running out.

Baseball

The New York Yankees pulled out of trade talks for Randy Johnson, telling the Arizona Diamondbacks that their proposals for deals involving the five-time Cy Young Award winner were unreasonable.

Arizona asked the Yankees for pitchers Javier Vazquez, Tom Gordon and Brad Halsey and $18.5 million -- the difference between the $17 million Johnson is due for the remaining year in his contract and the $35.5 million Vazquez is owed in his deal, which has three seasons left.

Miscellany

The USC women’s volleyball team will play host to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament tonight and Friday at the Lyon Center.

USC (19-5) will face the College of Charleston (26-5) in the opening round tonight at 7, followed by Cal State Northridge (17-10) vs. Kansas State (19-10). The winners play Friday at 7 p.m.

UCLA (18-10) will also play host to a first- and second-round bracket. The Bruins play Loyola Marymount (17-11) on Friday at 8 p.m., and the winner will take on the winner of Friday’s Long Beach State (23-6)-Utah (24-6) match on Saturday at 7 p.m.

In other first-round matchups, UC Irvine (18-10) will play Arizona on Friday at San Diego.

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Scott Gump shot a six-under 66 to take a one-stroke lead after the first round of the six-round PGA Tour qualifying tournament at PGA West in La Quinta.

The top 30 players after the final round Monday will earn PGA Tour exemptions, with the next 50 receiving full exemptions to the Nationwide circuit. Among the high-profile players in the field are 1987 U.S. Open winner Scott Simpson, who shot a 71, and seven-time Tour winner Bill Glasson, who shot a 72.

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Saturday’s third fight between Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera drew 325,000 pay-per-view buys, according to Mark Taffett, HBO pay-per-view president. That’s a gain of 25,000 buys over the second fight, held in 2002. The first Morales-Barrera match, staged in 2000, was shown on HBO.

Passings

Steve Lewis, the girls’ volleyball coach at Lakewood High who last month watched the Lancers advance to the Southern Section semifinals for the first time in 22 years, died Monday of liver cancer. He was 51.

Lewis, the father of Chris Lewis, the former Long Beach Poly and Stanford quarterback, coached Lakewood for seven years before stepping aside this fall because of his illness.