Bonds' Perjury Trial Sinks to New Lows

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 1, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

             Hitting below the belt, Barry Bonds’ former mistress became the latest salacious evidence against Major League Baseball’s single season and lifetime home run king, giving too much data about the 46-year-old former slugger’s sex life and anatomy.  Bonds finds himself embroiled in a federal perjury trial for denying to a Grand Jury in 2003 that he “knowingly” used steroids.  Touted as the government’s star witness, former 2007 Playboy bunny and Bonds’ mistress Kimberly Bell awkwardly answered U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedow’s voyeuristic questions.  She choked back tears when describing Bonds’ apparent domestic abuse.  He threatened “to cut my head off and leave me in a ditch,” providing what Nedow thinks is incriminating evidence of Bonds’ steroid use.  Nedow knows that relationship problems, intemperate behavior and domestic abuse are mot limited to steroid use.

            Bell’s testimony sinks to new lows with wild speculation about Bonds’ anatomical and emotional changes attributed to steroid use.  Bell’s testimony followed San Francisco Giants’ clubhouse manager Mike Murphy who said Bonds increased his bat size in 2002.  Common stereotypes about steroid users involve dramatic increases in muscle mass, injury proneness and a host of behavioral problems, including hyper aggressiveness and emotional instability.  Nedow questioned Bell about what she described as “a big lump” in Bonds’ shoulder, inferring the injury, without a shred of proof, from steroid use.  Bell told Nedow under oath that, “it blew out,” referring to Bonds’ shoulder from prolonged steroid use, again, wildly speculating.  Hitting new lows, Bell went on to describe changes to Bonds’ sexual anatomy and performance she connected to steroid use.

            Bell’s testimony impeaches the government’s case by allowing the former Playboy bunny to leak extraneous details to the jury.  While there’s no doubt plenty of first and second-hand reports and testimony about Bonds’ steroid use and plenty of inferences regarding changes to his physical appearance, hearing Bell’s lurid details reminds the jury of how pathetic the government’s case.  Whether Bonds’ used steroids or not, or failed to tell the whole story to a federal grand jury, Bell’s testimony shows how low the government will go for a conviction.  Telling Nedow Bonds’ shaved his chest hair or developed acne on his back incriminates not Bonds but the government’s misguided case.  Steroid and HGH use was so ubiquitous in baseball and other professional sports during the late ‘90s that it’s no fair to scapegoat a few high profile athletes for the sins of the many.     

            Government prosecutors should be ashamed of themselves soliciting testimony from Bonds’ former mistress.  Jurors’ shouldn’t be treated to the government’s voyeurism, going behind the scenes, peering into the private lives of professional athletes.  Whatever MLB decides to do about Bonds’ records, it has nothing to do with prosecuting Bonds’ for lying about steroid or HGH use.  When Bonds’ watched former St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire break New York Yankee outfielder Roger Maris’ 37-year-old single season homerun record Sept. 8, 1998, he noticed, like everyone else, McGwire’s massive physique.  Bonds was told that McGwire used performance-enhancing drugs.  Bonds watched attentively McGwire and his muscular teammate Jose Canseco grow in size from across the San Francisco Bay, smashing homeruns playing for the Oakland Athletics.

            Canseco came clean and blew the cover off MLB’s steroid scandal when he published his bombshell book Feb. 5, 2005, “Juiced:  Rampant ‘Roids,’ Smash Hits and How Basdball Got Big,” implicating his former “bash brother” McGwire, Bonds and numerous other famous ballplayers.  Canseco’s book prompted Congress to commission former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine) to investigate the growing MLB steroid scandal.  Congress threatened MLB baseball to either toughen up steroid rules and penalties or face national legislation, imposing severe penalties.  When the 409-page “Mitchell Report” was published Dec. 13, 2007, it named 89 current and former professional ballplayers using steroids, HGH and other performance enhancing drugs.  Since Bonds broke McGwire’s single season homerun record hitting 73, Oct. 7, 2001, speculation swirled about his steroid use.

            Bonds’ steroid use has been well-documented since breaking McGwire’s homerun record Oct. 7, 2001.  Allowing his former mistress to serve as a star witness shows the government’s desperation.  Whether Bonds used steroids or not, MLB and the government should have resolved the issue out-of-court, not dragging Bonds and the sport through the mud.  Hearing Bell’s inappropriate descriptions of Bonds’ sex life and anatomy shows how low the government stoops to prove its case.  While Canseco opened up a can of worms, it was San Francisco Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance William’s 2006 book “Game of Shadows” that meticulous documented Bonds’ steroid use and landed BALCO [steroid distributor] founder Victor Conte and Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson in jail.  Whatever happens to Bonds, the government’s case is a disgrace.

About the Author

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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