Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams are free from the threat of prison, now that their source in the BALCO steroids scandal has been revealed. The two San Francisco Chronicle reporters’ case tested press freedoms after they refused an order to identify their source.

San Francisco Chronicle:

Troy Ellerman, who once represented the founder and another executive of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, entered guilty pleas to four felony charges in federal court.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White, who called Ellerman’s crimes “a corruption of our system by a member of its bar,” put off until a June 14 sentencing hearing his decision on whether to accept a plea agreement that includes a sentence of no more than two years in prison.

The Justice Department announced immediately that it had dropped its effort to send the Chronicle reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, to prison for contempt of court.

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