Bonds' Federal Perjury Trial Mercifully Ends

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 6, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

            Handing the burden to the jury in the Barry Bonds’ perjury trail, the government may have proved the obvious:  That baseball’s greatest homerun hitter used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.  Bonds’ was guilty of bad judgment, not perjury in 2003, telling a federal grand jury that he did not “knowingly” use steroids.  When Bonds watched St. Louis Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire shatter former New York Yankee great Roger Maris’ 37-year-old single-season home run record Sept. 8, 1998, he knew McGwire looked like a monster from years of steroid use.  Bonds’ defense attorney Allen Ruby asked jurors to believe Bonds thought his now jailed trainer Greg Anderson was giving him vitamin injections and flaxseed-based arthritic cream known to professional athletes as “the clear and the cream,” something only used to sooth muscle aches and pains.

            Way back in opening arguments, Asst. U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella told jurors that a urine sample bonds given by Bonds in the summer of 2003 contained anabolic steroids, apparently proving to the jury that Bonds didn’t tell the truth.  But Bonds told that same grand jury that he didn’t not “knowingly” use steroids, something not proven by any urine or blood samples.  If they believe Bonds’ thought Anderson gave him flaxseed-based Tiger Balm, then the jury should have enough reasonable doubt to acquit the 47-year-old single-season and career homerun king.  Government prosecutors used Bonds’ former Playboy Bunny mistress Kimberly Bell as their star witness.  Jurors were treated to Bell’s wild speculation about Barry’s deteriorated sexual life and shrunken anatomy, concluding only to herself that his substandard performance and anatomy were steroid-based.

            Using Bonds’ ex-mistress as its star witness, the government’s case lacks the credibility needed for conviction.  Soliciting Bell’s opinion about Bonds’ sexual performance and anatomy can’t get much lower.  Going down that train undermined the government’s case, exposing the jury to an ugly domestic dispute, oozing with vindictiveness and retaliation.  Sticking their nose in Bonds’ private life, the government revealed the flimsy nature of their case, relying on innuendo, hearsay and gossip, then backing it up with so-called expert witnesses.  Bell’s wild inferences, tying Bonds’ sexual performance and shrunken anatomy to steroids, indicts an otherwise credible case built on the state of baseball in the late ‘90s and early years of the new century.  Major League Baseball had virtually no policy or real enforcement of nutritional supplements or performance enhancing drugs.

            When McGwire broke Maris’ single-season homerun record in 1998, he was taking the nutritional supplement androstendione that’s converted in the body into testosterone, the male sex hormone.  In Babe Ruth’s day, ballplayers lived on hotdogs and beer, not today’s scientifically precise diets, nutritional supplements and technologically advanced exercise routines.  Back in the day, ballplayers, like Ruth, had genetically-based talent and physical strength, not the benefits of today’s advances in nutritional science and exercise physiology.  Companies like Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative  [BALCO], producer of the steroid-based “clear and the cream,” catered to physicians, trainers and athletes seeking a competitive advantage.  When McGwire broke Maris’ record, Bonds knew that the former Oakland A’s “bash-brother” with his teammate Jose Canseco, used steroids.

            Jurors must remember that MLB only dealt with the steroid scandal reluctantly, only after Canseco blew the whistle and published his 2005 book, “Juiced.”  Once the scandal hit the media, Congress threatened to regulate MLB unless it passed zero-tolerance steroid policies.   At the time Canseco blew the whistle in 2005, Jose estimated that 80% of professional ballplayers used steroids or some kind of performance drugs.  When McGwire testified before the House Government Reform Committee March 17, 2005, he was well-coached and carefully scripted by his attorney.  “Asking me or any other player about who took steroids in front of television cameras will not solve the problem . . . My lawyers have advised me that I cannot answer these questions without jeopardizing my friends, my family and myself . . . “ stubbornly refusing to answer any questions about his steroid use.

            When Bonds testified before the federal grand jury in 2003 he was guilty of nothing more than not following good legal advice.  Whether he used steroids or not, the government went overboard prosecuting Bonds for perjury for alleged infractions with MLB’s loose and ambiguous steroid policy.  McGwire came clean and apologized Jan. 11, 2010 five years after he appeared before Congress.  Publicly flogging Bonds with testimony from his ex-mistress shows how low the government goes when scoring points about some arcane aspect of the American Justice System.  No civilized nation can possibly think that hearing testimony about Bonds’ sexual performance and anatomy qualifies as “evidence” presented to a legitimate jury.  Given the circumstances of MLB before Canseco blew the whistle in 2005, the government disgraced itself dragging Bonds into federal court.

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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