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Documents: Bonds tested positive for steroids four times from 2000 to 2003
By Howard Mintz
Mercury News
Posted: 02/04/2009 12:09:24 PM PST
Documents released Feb. 4, 2009:
Exhibits submitted to the court
U.S. opposition to motion to exclude evidence
Docket No. 01
Defendant's reply
Order unsealing documents
Exhibits in support of defendant's reply to U.S.
Drawing the most detailed portrait to date of the government's perjury case against Barry Bonds, prosecutors say they possess concrete evidence that baseball's all-time home run king tested positive four times for steroids from 2000 to 2003, years when ballparks around the country were often brimming with fans hoping to catch his historic swings.
In hundreds of documents made public for the first time Wednesday, prosecutors outlined a host of circumstantial evidence linking Bonds to steroid use, ranging from the positive drug tests to the testimony of everyone from former teammates to the vice president of the infamous Balco lab that spread performance-enhancing drugs throughout sports.
But the documents also
Related links
Full coverage of Barry Bonds on trial
underscore why federal prosecutors have labored so hard to secure the testimony of Greg Anderson, Bonds' former personal trainer and the person alleged by the government to have supplied the former San Francisco Giants slugger with steroids through Balco. There is no firsthand evidence in the documents that Bonds knowingly lied about his suspected use of steroids when he testified to a grand jury. Without Anderson's testimony, defense lawyers may be able to argue that the government's perjury case consists only of hearsay and unreliable test results.
During a hearing today, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston will take a dramatic step toward shaping the conflict between Bonds and the government as she considers how much evidence prosecutors
may introduce at trial to fill the void left by Anderson's steadfast refusal to testify. Among other things, documents unsealed Wednesday allege that Bonds tested positive twice for injectable steroids, a form of the drug he has not previously been linked with publicly.
Bonds is expected to plead not guilty this morning to the latest indictment charging him with 10 counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for lying to a federal grand jury in December 2003 about using steroids as he chased baseball's home run records. His trial is scheduled to begin March 2.
In hundreds of pages of previously secret material, released after a request from the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Associated Press, the government revealed the core of its case against Bonds. In those documents, prosecutors say if Anderson sticks to his "illegal" refusal to testify, the rest of its evidence is sufficient to convict Bonds of perjury and should be presented to a jury. Anderson, who served a year in prison in 2007 for contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury investigating Bonds, has indicated through his lawyer that he will not testify.
In court papers also unsealed Wednesday, Bonds' legal
team insists Bonds cannot get a fair trial if much of the evidence is allowed.
"Barry told the truth to the grand jury, and nothing in the graffiti the government wants to use against him changes that," added Allen Ruby, Bonds' lead attorney.
The highlights of the government's evidence include the following:
Of the three positive tests in 2000 and 2001, at least two were for injectable drugs, despite Bonds' testimony that he had not been injected with any steroids by Anderson, and that he generally disliked needles. The drugs were methenelone and nandrolone, the latter an anabolic steroid popular with bodybuilders. Bonds had previously been linked publicly only to the "cream" and the "clear," two Balco steroids administered on the skin and orally. The government obtained the test results from a Southern California lab, Quest Diagnostics, as well as through documents seized from Balco.
Evidence Bonds tested positive again in 2003, when all the league's players were tested for steroids under a confidential program administered by Major League Baseball to determine the scope of the steroids problem in the sport. The government's seizure of those test results has produced a legal showdown over privacy rights that is now pending in a federal appeals court.
A profanity-laced tape-recorded conversation in March 2003 in the Giants locker room between Anderson and Steve Hoskins, a former associate of Bonds who later had a falling out with the slugger. In that conversation, Anderson appears to be discussing helping administer steroids to Bonds, and ways of avoiding baseball's drug-testing program.
While Anderson doesn't directly say he gave Bonds steroids, the discussion centers on Hoskins' questions about how the injections are given to Bonds. "Is that why Barry didn't do it in one spot, and you didn't just let him do it one time?'' Hoskins asks at one point.
"Oh no. I never just go there. I move it all over the place," Anderson replied.
Prosecution plans to call other baseball players, including Jason and Jeremy Giambi, as well as former Giants Bobby Estalella, Marvin Benard and Benito Santiago, as witnesses against Bonds, describing them as "all athletes who obtained steroids from Anderson." The government also plans to call Kimberly Bell, Bonds' former mistress, although at this point does not intend to introduce phone calls she recorded where the superstar had angry outbursts she attributed to steroid use.
Balco Vice President James Valente, who is expected to verify doping calendars showing Bonds' steroid use and testify that Anderson told him he was giving Bonds steroids and had his urine samples sent off to labs for testing. Asked in May 2006 by prosecutors why he put "Barry B.'' on samples, Valente told a grand jury: "Cause Greg gave it to me and told me,'' a transcript shows.
In an e-mail Wednesday, Balco founder Victor Conte, who has openly questioned the government's case against Bonds, doubted Valente could link Bonds to positive steroids tests. "I do not believe Valente can connect the dots for the government regarding any laboratory reports," he said.
In court papers, Bonds' lawyers note that Valente admits there is "no chain of custody" to prove the samples were from Bonds. "There is no foundation that the specimens tested came from Barry Bonds," defense lawyers wrote, urging Illston to bar them from the trial.
By Howard Mintz
Mercury News
Posted: 02/04/2009 12:09:24 PM PST
Documents released Feb. 4, 2009:
Exhibits submitted to the court
U.S. opposition to motion to exclude evidence
Docket No. 01
Defendant's reply
Order unsealing documents
Exhibits in support of defendant's reply to U.S.
Drawing the most detailed portrait to date of the government's perjury case against Barry Bonds, prosecutors say they possess concrete evidence that baseball's all-time home run king tested positive four times for steroids from 2000 to 2003, years when ballparks around the country were often brimming with fans hoping to catch his historic swings.
In hundreds of documents made public for the first time Wednesday, prosecutors outlined a host of circumstantial evidence linking Bonds to steroid use, ranging from the positive drug tests to the testimony of everyone from former teammates to the vice president of the infamous Balco lab that spread performance-enhancing drugs throughout sports.
But the documents also
Related links
Full coverage of Barry Bonds on trial
underscore why federal prosecutors have labored so hard to secure the testimony of Greg Anderson, Bonds' former personal trainer and the person alleged by the government to have supplied the former San Francisco Giants slugger with steroids through Balco. There is no firsthand evidence in the documents that Bonds knowingly lied about his suspected use of steroids when he testified to a grand jury. Without Anderson's testimony, defense lawyers may be able to argue that the government's perjury case consists only of hearsay and unreliable test results.
During a hearing today, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston will take a dramatic step toward shaping the conflict between Bonds and the government as she considers how much evidence prosecutors
may introduce at trial to fill the void left by Anderson's steadfast refusal to testify. Among other things, documents unsealed Wednesday allege that Bonds tested positive twice for injectable steroids, a form of the drug he has not previously been linked with publicly.
Bonds is expected to plead not guilty this morning to the latest indictment charging him with 10 counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for lying to a federal grand jury in December 2003 about using steroids as he chased baseball's home run records. His trial is scheduled to begin March 2.
In hundreds of pages of previously secret material, released after a request from the San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle and The Associated Press, the government revealed the core of its case against Bonds. In those documents, prosecutors say if Anderson sticks to his "illegal" refusal to testify, the rest of its evidence is sufficient to convict Bonds of perjury and should be presented to a jury. Anderson, who served a year in prison in 2007 for contempt for refusing to testify before the grand jury investigating Bonds, has indicated through his lawyer that he will not testify.
In court papers also unsealed Wednesday, Bonds' legal
team insists Bonds cannot get a fair trial if much of the evidence is allowed.
"Barry told the truth to the grand jury, and nothing in the graffiti the government wants to use against him changes that," added Allen Ruby, Bonds' lead attorney.
The highlights of the government's evidence include the following:
Of the three positive tests in 2000 and 2001, at least two were for injectable drugs, despite Bonds' testimony that he had not been injected with any steroids by Anderson, and that he generally disliked needles. The drugs were methenelone and nandrolone, the latter an anabolic steroid popular with bodybuilders. Bonds had previously been linked publicly only to the "cream" and the "clear," two Balco steroids administered on the skin and orally. The government obtained the test results from a Southern California lab, Quest Diagnostics, as well as through documents seized from Balco.
Evidence Bonds tested positive again in 2003, when all the league's players were tested for steroids under a confidential program administered by Major League Baseball to determine the scope of the steroids problem in the sport. The government's seizure of those test results has produced a legal showdown over privacy rights that is now pending in a federal appeals court.
A profanity-laced tape-recorded conversation in March 2003 in the Giants locker room between Anderson and Steve Hoskins, a former associate of Bonds who later had a falling out with the slugger. In that conversation, Anderson appears to be discussing helping administer steroids to Bonds, and ways of avoiding baseball's drug-testing program.
While Anderson doesn't directly say he gave Bonds steroids, the discussion centers on Hoskins' questions about how the injections are given to Bonds. "Is that why Barry didn't do it in one spot, and you didn't just let him do it one time?'' Hoskins asks at one point.
"Oh no. I never just go there. I move it all over the place," Anderson replied.
Prosecution plans to call other baseball players, including Jason and Jeremy Giambi, as well as former Giants Bobby Estalella, Marvin Benard and Benito Santiago, as witnesses against Bonds, describing them as "all athletes who obtained steroids from Anderson." The government also plans to call Kimberly Bell, Bonds' former mistress, although at this point does not intend to introduce phone calls she recorded where the superstar had angry outbursts she attributed to steroid use.
Balco Vice President James Valente, who is expected to verify doping calendars showing Bonds' steroid use and testify that Anderson told him he was giving Bonds steroids and had his urine samples sent off to labs for testing. Asked in May 2006 by prosecutors why he put "Barry B.'' on samples, Valente told a grand jury: "Cause Greg gave it to me and told me,'' a transcript shows.
In an e-mail Wednesday, Balco founder Victor Conte, who has openly questioned the government's case against Bonds, doubted Valente could link Bonds to positive steroids tests. "I do not believe Valente can connect the dots for the government regarding any laboratory reports," he said.
In court papers, Bonds' lawyers note that Valente admits there is "no chain of custody" to prove the samples were from Bonds. "There is no foundation that the specimens tested came from Barry Bonds," defense lawyers wrote, urging Illston to bar them from the trial.
