The New York Times reports that a federal appeals court ruled on Friday that prosecutors will be barred from using positive drug tests and doping calendars in the perjury case of Barry Bonds, the major leagues’ career home run leader, significantly hurting the government’s case against him. The appeals court, in a 2-to-1 ruling, affirmed a lower court decision that said the government could not authenticate the evidence and directly tie it to Bonds without the testimony of his former trainer.
The appeals court, in a 2-to-1 ruling, affirmed a lower court decision that said the government could not authenticate the evidence and directly tie it to Bonds without the testimony of his former trainer Greg Anderson. Anderson has been jailed several times in the past five years for refusing to testify about substances he gave Bonds.
Three days before Bonds’s trial was scheduled to begin in March 2009, prosecutors appealed the decision from United States District Judge Susan Illston that excluded the evidence. Read New York Times Story
Prosecutors sought to use documents that were seized from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative that tied Bonds to positive drug tests and showed he had steroids in his urine in 2000 and 2001. The doping calendars were seized at Anderson’s home and marked with the initials “BB.” Prosecutors said they were used to monitors Bonds’s use of human growth hormone and designer steroids.
The prosecutors argued that James Valente, a former Balco executive, could testify that Bonds authorized Anderson to have his urine samples tested.
Bonds’s lawyers countered that Valente’s information was secondhand and therefore inadmissible.
Bonds has not played since 2007. It is not clear when his trial will begin. He was indicted in November 2007 on charges he made false statements before a grand jury in December 2003 when he said he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Source: Michael S. Schmidt New York Times
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