Former U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan discusses his experience investigating steroid use among athletes. Ryan, 49, was fired by the Bush administration earlier this year as part of a controversial purge of eight U.S. attorneys and now is in private practice.

San Francisco ? Northern California’s top prosecutor will soon face another deadline on whether to indict Barry Bonds for perjury, drop the probe or ask a judge to extend the term of the grand jury investigating the case.

When that day comes, the decision will no longer be Kevin Ryan’s.

The 49-year-old was fired by the Bush administration earlier this year as part of its purge of eight U.S. attorneys and is now in private practice.

“It was cheating, plain and simple,” said Ryan, explaining why he doggedly pursued steroid-using athletes and their suppliers for nearly four years. “It was wrong, and that’s the way I was raised.”

Faced last year with a similar decision on whether to indict Bonds or keep building his case, Ryan opted to impanel a new grand jury. He threw Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson, back in jail for refusing to testify – his second such stint and a clear sign that investigators view Anderson’s testimony as key evidence against Bonds.

Now Bonds is preparing to pass Hank Aaron as the game’s career home-run leader. Ryan’s successor, interim U.S. Attorney Scott Schools, is facing a likely July deadline on whether to continue investigating Bonds, indict him or drop the case. Ryan is out of the equation, but still hopes to see Bonds brought to justice for allegedly lying when he testified under oath that he never knowingly used performance enhancing drugs.

“I believe in the integrity of the process,” Ryan said in a recent interview with the Associated Press in which he shared few details on the BALCO steroids probe and resisted the chance to lash out at the Bush administration for his firing.

Ryan is hoping to profit from having prosecuted professional sports’ biggest drug scandal by launching a sports litigation practice with fellow attorney and former Oakland Raiders tight end Bob Moore. They want to help leagues develop steroid policies.

“We can help you avoid a BALCO-like situation,” Ryan said. “Or if you get into a BALCO situation, we can help you get out of it or transition through it.”

Private practice is terra incognito for the 49-year-old son of Irish immigrants who has lived in San Francisco since he was an infant. Until Feb. 15, the loyal Republican in a decidedly Democratic city had spent his entire 22-year legal career as either a prosecutor or a judge.

He was appointed to the California Superior Court at the age of 38 by Republican Gov. Pete Wilson. In 2002, President Bush appointed him U.S. attorney for Northern California.

The investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the Burlingame supplements lab at the center of the steroids probe, was launched in September of that year, and prosecutors so far have indicted seven people and won five convictions.

His government career was derailed in December when he was the last of eight U.S. attorneys added to the list of prosecutors Bush administration officials wanted to fire.

Internal Justice Department e-mails released by Congress show top-ranking officials wanted to keep him on because of his loyalty to the administration, despite an autocratic management style that was causing morale problems in the office. But they decided to fire him after a federal judge in San Francisco threatened to make his scathing performance review public and embarrass the administration.

Even after Ryan was asked to leave, he assured the administration he was a “company man” and promised to keep mum about his dismissal – a stark contrast to the seven other fired prosecutors who have complained of political pressure to investigate Democrats.

He maintained that vow of silence during the 90-minute AP interview, saying only that he was “happy” to be at his new law firm and proud of his accomplishments as U.S. attorney.

Bonds’ attorney, Michael Rains, says it’s inappropriate for Ryan to profit from his intimate knowledge of the BALCO investigation.

“He is capitalizing on something that he should not be involved with anymore,” Rains said. “I think it’s shameful.”

Rains says the probe has dragged on too long and besmirched Bonds’ name without any charges having been filed against the slugger.

“The management of this investigation has been an abomination,” Rains said. “It’s a sad commentary on how government investigations should be handled.”

Rains says he has exchanged letters with Schools, Ryan’s replacement, about Ryan’s handling of the BALCO case, giving him hope that the government may soon drop its probe of Bonds. But Rains would not specify the nature of the letters, and Schools declined to comment for this story.

For his part, Ryan makes no apologies for pursuing the performance enhancing drug case as vigorously as he did.

“I am very happy with what we were able to accomplish,” he said. “We did galvanize the steroids debate.”