Barry Bonds perjury trial early highlight of baseball season
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The federal perjury trial involving former baseball superstar Barry Bonds is but one of many unusual things that are affiliated with, or have happened to the San Francisco Giants team this spring.
The Giants, winners of last year's Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series championship, were not picked by many sports analysts and commentators to repeat as champions. They lost four out of their first five games played during the 2011 season which began last week.
After their first game, which was played in Los Angeles against the home team Dodgers, two men wearing Dodger-decaled clothing physically assulted Giants fan Brian Snow.
He now lies in a coma in a Los Angeles hospital and local police detectives are investigating complaints by Giants fans who attended the game that the same two male suspects previously hit other Giants fans wearing Giants-labelled clothing. The two suspects have yet to be apprehended by Los Angeles police.
Barry Zito, one of the Giants more talented pitchers, was injured in a automobile accident last Wednesday but suffered no debilitating injuries.
Yet all of this pales in overall comparison to the federal perjury case of the U.S. vs Barry Bonds, which is being held in San Francisco.
Bonds, 46, who is MLB's career home run leader with 762 and who played the final 14 seasons of his career with the Giants, faces four charges of giving false testimony in 2003 to a federal grand jury that was investigating whether he knowingly took either human growth hormone (HGH) and/or steroids during his professional baseball playing career.
He also faces, in relation to these charges, one count of obstruction of justice. Bonds has pleaded not guilty against all of the charges.
The trial, which began on March 21, has had numerous peculiar aspects, and the prosecution finished presenting their case this week. Among these unusual developments are:
Kimberly Bell, Bonds former mistress, testified that in their nine years together she saw Bonds have an acne problem on his back and shoulders, that he lost all of his hair, and that his genitalia changed -- all of which are physical traits of steroid use.
Four former MLB players -- Marvin Lenard, Randy Velerade, and the brothers Jason and Jeremy Giambi, all testified that they received HGH and or other athletic performing enhancement drugs from Greg Anderson, who was Bonds former personal trainer, and is now in jail, on contempt-of-court charges, for refusing to testify during the trial.
There seems to be unified agreement, between both prosecuting and defender lawyers who are closely watching the case, that the testimony by Dr. Arthur Ting, Bonds doctor, which directly contradicted testimony given by Bonds former friend and business partner Steve Hoskins significantly damaged the validity of the prosecution's case.
Hoskins had told the trial's jury that he and Ting had at least 50 conversations about Bonds 1999 elbow injury. Hoskins also said that Ting told him that Bonds elbow injury was due to steroid use. Ting denied both of these claims by Hoskins.
The Giants, Bonds former employer, are being taciturn about the legal proceedings. "We're not commenting on the trial and we don't plan on commenting about the trial," said Staci Slaughter, Giants spokeswoman.
By the time Bonds $15.8 million contract with the Giants was not renewed after the 2007 season, not only did he have the all-time home run career mark, but he also held the record for most home runs hit in a single season (73, during the 2001 MLB season), drove in almost 2,000 runs batted in (falling a bit short, at 1,996), and was named MLB Most Valuable Player a record-setting seven times.
He also excelled at his defensive play, being awarded eight Gold Gloves for his work as an outfielder during the course of his 22 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Giants. Fourteen times he was voted to the annual All-Star Team.
At the time of his leaving MLB, he was making almost $16 million a year for playing for the Giants. Collectively for his career, he received almost $190 million dollars. That latter figure does not include numerous and various fiscal incentives and bonuses. If both of these are officially counted, then Bonds made well over $200 million during his 22 season career.
In total, federal prosecutors called 25 witnesses to testify on their behalf. As the defense prepared to present its case, speculation among those following the federal trial was whether or not Bonds would testify. At least one such person believes that for Bonds to do so would be a bad idea on the former Giants player's behalf.
"Bonds lawyers would be crazy to let him take the (witness) stand," said Harvard Law School Professor Peter Carfagna. "That would create the possibility that the prosecutors could ask him all sorts of questions."
Carfagna who specializes in the legal field of Sports Law, noted that the perjury charges against Bonds could be difficult for the federal prosecutors to prove.
"They (the prosecutors) have to prove that Bonds committed perjury knowingly and that it was intentional. For the jury to find him guilty of any or all of the charges, the prosecution has to prove that all of this happened beyond a reasonable doubt. If Bonds is found innocent of all of the charges, there is no double jeopardy. He walks out of the courtroom a free man," he explained.
The steroid which Bonds is alleged to have used to become a better baseball player is tetrahydrogestrinone. Better known as "the clear," due to its translucent look, it is a cream-like substance which users lather onto their skin.
"The clear" was developed by chemist Patrick Arnold who on August 4, 2006, was sentenced to three months in prison, in addition to three months of house arrest, due to being found guilty on one charge of conspiring to distribute steroids.
On Arnold's official blog site, under the January 19 entry, there appears the following: "...Why is the federal government -- in our times of unprecedented fiscal crisis -- unquestionably pouring money into this expensive trial that pretty much lost its relevancy years ago?"
Carfagna, in another sense, reiterated Arnold's above stated opinion.
"If Bonds is found guilty on all charges, the maximum prison sentence would be anywhere from 18 to 24 months. But if he is found innocent of all charges, then what was all of this for? Is this (the federal prosecution's costs in building their case against Bonds) proper expenditure of public funds?" Carfagna asked.
