Please enter email address to continue. Please enter valid email address to continue. Chrome Safari Continue. Be the first to know. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Speculation about Bonds' possible use of performance-enhancing substances had been rampant for years, but this was the first statement from such a knowledgeable source.
On November 15th , Bonds was indicted by a federal grand jury of five counts of perjury and obstruction of justice because of inconsistencies in his testimony in the BALCO affair in He pleaded not guilty. On February 29 , , the presiding judge ruled that Bonds' entire testimony should be made public, and requested that federal prosecutors re-write their indictment to conform with what was now public evidence.
On February 10 , , prosecutors announced that they were dropping six charges from their initial indictment, cutting these to five. While this decision did not affect the potential penalties faced by Bonds, it reflected the perception that many of the original charges would be too difficult to prove in the expected absence of testimony by Bonds's personal trainer Greg Anderson, who had refused to provide evidence at the grand jury level and did time in jail for his actions.
Two weeks later, the federal side showed they would bring out the heavy artillery in attempting to secure a conviction against Bonds: they indicated that they planned to interview as witnesses Bonds' former mistress, Kimberly Bell, and his personal doctor, as well as childhood friend and former business partner Steve Hoskins, to testify against Bonds and try to establish that Bonds had displayed a pattern of abusive behavior and physiological changes consistent with the documented side-effects of steroid use.
That tactic was immediately decried by Bonds's lawyers as an attempt at character assassination. Federal Judge Susan Illston did turn down the prosecution's attempt to introduce as evidence recordings of Bonds from Bell's voice mail, which would have been used to demonstrate supposed instances of so-called "'roid rage".
On March 1st , Bonds re-entered a plea of "not guilty", a move necessitated by the changes to the charges he faced. Bonds's trial for perjury and obstruction of justice began on March 21 , , under the name "USA vs. Speculation was that he was unlikely to face prison time if convicted, as a former pro cyclist who was facing similar charges in the BALCO scandal received house arrest and probation instead. To go around this, Judge Illston agreed to have a number of Bonds's former teammates and other players testify about their relationship with Anderson, and the fact that they knew he was supplying illegal drugs.
Bonds's lawyers argued unsuccessfully that calling on players to testify was tantamount to attempting to prove guilt by mere association, but the judge rejected these arguments. The judge also allowed the introduction as evidence of the recording of a potentially incriminating conversation between Bonds and former business partner Hoskins, taped in in front of Bonds's locker, in which they discuss his use of PEDs; Bonds's lawyers argued unsuccessfully to have the recording excluded from the trial.
In his testimony, Steve Hoskins stated that Bonds had become interested in steroids when recovering from his elbow injury and had asked him to obtain more information on the subject from his personal surgeon, Dr.
Arthur Ting. He claimed that he obtained the information, and then talked a number of times with Dr. Ting after that about the effects of steroids. He added that Bonds had begun to receive injections before the start of the season and that he had noticed important physical changes in his friend starting from that time. Former girlfriend Kimberly Bell's deposition was similar to Hoskins', detailing how Bonds began to use steroids in , administered by personal trainer Anderson.
She described the physiological and behavioral changes that she claims ensued, including hair loss, acne, impotence, and increasingly violent and threatening behavior. Giants trainer Stan Conte said that he opposed the presence of Anderson and Harvey Shields, Bonds's personal trainers, in the team's clubhouse but did not receive support from GM Brian Sabean and manager Dusty Baker to kick them out.
He also testified to changes in appearance in Bonds and described him as "an uncooperative patient" who refused to be weighed or to give information about his recovery from various injuries. Colorado Rockies 1B Jason Giambi , the first player to testify, stated that he had received performance-enhancing drugs and instructions on their use from Anderson. The Barry Bonds Verdict Another celebrity trial shines a light on our bizarre justice system. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm vet.
Views expressed here are his own. Comments Boyd says:. Thursday, 14 April at Southern Hoosier says:. Russell Newquist says:. James Joyner says:. Boyd says:.
PD Shaw says:. But jurors didn't believe Bonds' story, either, such as it was. He was acquitted of nothing. The mixed result here thus is mostly a reminder that there are good reasons why prosecutors always throw in catch-all charges at the end of indictments. They work! They give jurors a place to seek and find compromise.
The catch-all phrase of "obstruction of justice" snared Martha Stewart, and then I. Where does that leave the rest of us? When it comes to knowing what really happened with Bonds and steroids, we are not much further along than we were when the trial started. Bonds didn't testify. Can you blame him? What would have been the point? It was his own testimony before a grand jury that got him into this mess in the first place. Nor did the world hear from the government's star witness, the slugger's former trainer, Greg Anderson , whom prosecutors alleged injected Bonds with performance-enhancing drugs.
No, Anderson went to jail instead, over and over again, lest he be required to tell the truth under oath. I'm not knocking the Fifth Amendment, mind you.
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