Former San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds, who used to spend this week each year at baseball's All-Star Game festivities, instead is locked once more in a legal tangle over the federal government's attempt to rejuvenate its perjury case against him.
In court papers filed Wednesday, Bonds' legal team is contesting federal prosecutors' latest legal salvo aimed at persuading a federal appeals court to allow them to use crucial evidence against Bonds, including three positive steroid tests allegedly linked to baseball's home run king.
Bonds' lawyers asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reject the government's effort to overturn a San Francisco federal judge's decision earlier this year excluding the evidence. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston barred prosecutors from using the evidence on the eve of Bonds' trial in March, concluding that the drug tests and other evidence, such as drug logs, could not be linked to the former superstar without the account of his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson.
Anderson has repeatedly refused to testify against Bonds, even serving a year in federal prison at one point after being found in contempt. Bonds faces 10 counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury in December 2003 about using steroids as he chased baseball's all-time home run records.
"The government determined it would have great difficulty obtaining a conviction without the cooperation of Mr. Anderson," Bonds' lawyers wrote to the 9th Circuit. "It therefore put Mr. Anderson in jail for over a year. Because that bore no fruit, the government seeks instead to obtain a conviction based on hearsay — untested, unconfronted out-of-court statements.http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_12846698Barry Bonds' lawyers want to keep ban of allegedly positive steroid tests from perjury trialA team of lawyers defending Barry Bonds from perjury charges filed an appellate brief Wednesday arguing that the federal judge overseeing the BALCO prosecution was correct to exclude allegedly positive steroid tests and other evidence from the slugger's upcoming trial.
The government seeks to "obtain a conviction based on hearsay - untested, unconfronted, out-of-court statements," Bonds' seven lawyers said in a 68-page argument filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Early this year, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston barred the evidence when it became clear that Bonds' former trainer, Greg Anderson, would refuse to take the stand, apparently making it impossible for prosecutors to link the evidence to Bonds.
In March, just days before the Bonds trial was set to begin, prosecutors decided to appeal Illston's decision. Since then, both sides have argued over whether documents seized during the BALCO raid constitute hearsay.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/2009/07/16/2009-07-16_barry_bonds.html
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