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Barry Bonds News & Rumors

Barry Bonds - 1 month house arrest for obstruction
December 17
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"A federal judge sentenced an impassive Barry Bonds to 30 days of house arrest Friday for obstructing justice during an investigation of steroids in sports, saying the slugger's grand jury testimony was evasive and illegal but did not warrant imprisonment. In rejecting prosecutors' request for a 15-month prison term for baseball's all-time home run leader, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston cited Bonds' years of low-profile work for charitable causes, his lack of a criminal record, and the home-detention sentences she had issued to cycling star Tammy Thomas and track coach Trevor Graham, both convicted of perjury in the same probe. "I think the jury got it exactly right here, that Mr. Bonds"
Judge could send Barry Bonds to jail Friday
December 15
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Bicycle racer Tammy Thomas lied to a grand jury about her use of steroids, then fought perjury charges in court. Convicted, she was sentenced to house arrest. It was the same story for elite track coach Trevor Graham, who lied to a federal agent trying to unpack the BALCO steroids scandal: Found guilty, he too was put under house arrest. On Friday in San Francisco, the same federal judge who showed mercy to those sports figures must sentence a far more famous athlete convicted of equivocating about banned drugs: Barry Bonds, the former Giants left fielder and holder of baseball's career home run record."
Bonds Avoids New Trial on Three Perjury Charges
September 1
New York Times
 
"Barry Bonds will not face a new trial on charges of lying to a federal grand jury about his use of steroids and human growth hormone, according to papers filed Wednesday in federal court. In a brief statement, the United States Attorney's Office in San Francisco said it would drop the remaining three perjury charges on which jurors failed to reach a verdict during Bonds's trial last spring. The judge had declared a mistrial on those counts, and prosecutors had spent more than four months mulling whether to retry him. That decision comes less than a week after United States District Court Judge Susan Illston ruled that she would not dismiss Bonds's conviction on an obstruction of justice"
Upon review, ball 4 for Barry Bonds?
August 27
San Francisco Chronicle
 columnist Gwen Knapp
"Given how respectfully judge Susan Illston treated the jury at Barry Bonds' trial, it's hard to imagine her tossing out the lone guilty verdict at today's hearing (or in a future decision if that's the way she opts to rule). She'd be slapping around the citizens who gave up 3 1/2 weeks of their lives to serve her court, devoting nearly four days to deliberations. But, at least to a layperson, the jury instructions for the obstruction verdict leave room for it to be overturned, either by Illston or an appeals court. The passage of grand-jury testimony that led to the conviction captures the evasiveness of Bonds' entire appearance on the witness stand in 2003. Jurors who spoke after the"
Barry Bonds attorneys make another pitch to throw out his conviction
August 9
San Jose Mercury News
 
"Lawyers for home run king Barry Bonds made one last pitch Monday to wipe out his obstruction of justice conviction, urging a federal judge to either throw out the verdict or give him a new trial on the charge. In court papers, Bonds' legal team argued the April conviction was flawed for a variety of reasons, and maintained that the government's attempt to preserve the obstruction charge amounts to a "fevered effort to gain a celebrity's conviction." U.S. District Judge Susan Illston is scheduled to hold a hearing Aug. 26 to consider Bonds' bid to set aside the conviction for obstructing justice in statements to a federal grand jury in December 2003 about his use of performance enhancing"
Barry Bonds prosecutors want verdict upheld
July 28
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Federal prosecutors urged a judge Wednesday to uphold Barry Bonds' conviction for obstruction of justice, arguing that the baseball star tried to mislead a grand jury with a rambling, nonresponsive answer to a question about drug injections. Bonds gave an "evasive, misleading and false answer" in his 2003 testimony to hide the fact that his trainer, Greg Anderson, had injected him with steroids, prosecutors said in a court filing in San Francisco. A U.S. District Court jury deadlocked April 13 on three charges that the former Giants outfielder lied to the grand jury by denying that he ever knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs or received injections from anyone except his physician."
Barry Bonds seeks to overturn federal conviction
June 16
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Barry Bonds' lawyers asked a federal judge Wednesday to overturn his obstruction-of-justice conviction for testifying evasively to a grand jury about drug injections, arguing that jurors used an out-of-context statement to find him guilty of something that wasn't even a crime. A federal jury deadlocked April 13 on three perjury charges against the former Giants ballplayer based on his 2003 grand jury testimony that he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs or received injections from anyone but his physician. But jurors convicted him of obstruction for a rambling response to a question about whether his trainer ever gave him injectable drugs. Bonds' answer discussed his"
Bonds' post-trial hearing pushed to June 24
May 25
MLB.com
 
"A post-trial hearing date for Barry Bonds has been postponed a second time and is now tentatively scheduled for June 24. The U.S. District Court, Northern California District, said in a document released Tuesday that the court is unavailable for the rescheduled date of June 17. A hearing before Judge Susan Illston originally was scheduled for May 20 in the same San Francisco courtroom where Bonds' federal trial was held."
Bonds deserves to serve time
April 17
Chicago Tribune
 columnist Phil Rogers
"From the perspective of a citizen, not a baseball writer, it seems right for Barry Bonds to serve some jail time for his felony conviction on obstruction of justice. Some believe U.S. District Judge Susan Illston would be within her legal rights to throw out the conviction when she brings the participants from the 3 1/2-week trial back into her courtroom May 20. Maybe she will do that, but it seems Bonds deserves some real punishment, not just a slap on the wrist. Bonds thumbed his nose at the legal system, as he and hundreds of other steroid cheats had at baseball officials and fans in the years when there was no drug testing. His defense team did a good job to get him a mistrial on three"
Barry Bonds trial, and verdict, an exercise in absurdity
April 15
Miami Herald
 columnist Linda Robertson
"The jury reached an absurd verdict Wednesday in the absurd trial of baseball's absurd home run king, Barry Bonds. The trial of Bonds, which included testimony about his expanding head, shrinking testicles and record-breaking slugging statistics, could not have ended any other way. The real surprise would have been a logical conclusion to the case of a man who said he thought the muscle-growing potions he used were flaxseed oil and arthritic balm. The verdict was messy, confusing, maddening, insulting – just like the Steroids Era, which drags on and on. Bonds, who would be the biggest name in the Hall of Fraud, was convicted of a single count of obstruction of justice by a federal jury in"
Verdict in, but Bonds case not over
April 15
MLB.com
 
"The Barry Bonds trial was supposed to be the culmination of the investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, which introduced the acronym BALCO and the terms "the clear" and "the cream" into the American sports vocabulary over the last several years. That investigation began in 2002 with Internal Revenue Service agent Jeff Novitzky digging through a dumpster behind the lab's headquarters in Burlingame, Calif., a few miles south of San Francisco. Building a case that BALCO was using its legitimate marketing of mineral supplements to launder money acquired from illegally distributing steroids, Novitzky would lead a raid of the lab and trainer Greg Anderson's residence, sending the"
Judging Bonds has only just begun
April 14
New York Times
 columnist Tyler Kepner
"Barry Bonds's statistics cannot be erased. Bonds did not get away with his actions in federal court, where he was convicted of a count of obstruction of justice Wednesday. But in his era Bonds was allowed to stay on the field and hit 762 home runs and win seven Most Valuable Player awards. Fans can judge those accomplishments however they want, but they did happen, and they are as historically valid as the 714 homers Babe Ruth hit without ever facing an African-American pitcher. Commissioner Bud Selig said Tuesday that he had already studied the integrity of baseball's records, with help from Jerome Holtzman, the Chicago writer who was baseball's official historian."
Barry Bonds guilty of obstruction of justice
April 14
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Barry Bonds, the former Giants outfielder and baseball's all-time home-run leader, was convicted Wednesday of obstruction of justice for giving evasive answers to a federal grand jury that questioned him about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. The jury that convicted Bonds in federal court in San Francisco deadlocked on three perjury charges. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston declared a mistrial on those counts. The jury returned its verdict after a three-week trial. The panel began its deliberations Friday. Illston set a May 20 hearing, in part to determine whether the government wants a retrial on the perjury counts. Bonds' lawyer, Allen Ruby, said the defense will ask the judge to"
Still no verdict in Barry Bonds trial after 3 days
April 13
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"The jury in the Barry Bonds perjury trial deliberated for a third day without reaching a verdict and is scheduled to resume discussions today. The panel made no requests Tuesday of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston, who presided over the trial in San Francisco. The jury began work shortly after 8:30 a.m., took a lunch break and worked until about 3:15 p.m. Bonds, the former Giants outfielder and baseball's all-time home run champion, is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice. He is accused of lying under oath to the grand jury that investigated steroid dealing at the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame. He said he had never knowingly used banned drugs."
Jury in Bonds trial in third day of deliberations
April 12
MLB.com
 
"The jury deciding the fate of Barry Bonds has entered its third day of deliberations, calling it a day Monday after hearing a re-reading of key testimony in the morning and continuing discussions into the afternoon. The eight women and four men impaneled March 22 in Judge Susan Illston's courtroom listened to 11 days of testimony and arguments regarding testimony Bonds gave to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) grand jury in 2003. The jurors returned to deliberations at 8:30 a.m. PT on Tuesday. Bonds, the Major Leagues' all-time leader in home runs and a seven-time Most Valuable Player, is standing trial on three counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of"
Bonds jury hears about injection again but reaches no verdict
April 12
New York Times
 
"After two full days of deliberations — more than 10 hours of debate — the jurors assigned to determine Barry Bonds's fate came up empty again Monday and failed to render a verdict. Bonds, 46, is charged with three counts of providing false statements to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he said he never knowingly used steroids, and one count of obstruction of justice. Each count carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence. Just after 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, the panel of eight women and four men walked out of the jury room looking spent, with drooping shoulders and blank looks on their faces. But their demeanors were not revealing."
Bonds jury set to review testimony
April 11
MLB.com
 
"The jury in the federal trial of Barry Bonds will be back in the courtroom to begin its second day of deliberations Monday, but when the jurors will be back there to deliver a verdict remains to be seen. After going out for deliberations Friday, the eight women and four men will report back to Judge Susan Illston's courtroom first thing Monday morning, hearing a re-reading of the riveting testimony former personal shopper Kathy Hoskins provided during the trial. What will be missing from Monday's re-reading is the emotion Hoskins, the sister of fellow childhood friend and prosecution witness Steve Hoskins, displayed in giving her testimony -- smiling when talking about taking Bonds to the"
Barry Bonds jury has plenty to consider
April 10
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"For Barry Bonds' jury, it can't be an easy call. They've been asked to sort out a fiercely contested legal fight in which the evidence - depending on how it's viewed - could support either an outright exoneration or a cascade of guilty verdicts. If the jury is offended by the idea of federal law enforcement policing the use of performance-enhancing drugs in elite sports, the trial could end in acquittal. But if the jury starts to dig into the evidence - especially the testimony of a personal shopper who says she saw Bonds being injected by his trainer - baseball's home run champion could wind up being convicted of a felony. Those are some of the views expressed in a California Watch survey"
Jury deliberating charges against Bonds
April 9
MLB.com
 
"Jurors deciding the case of USA vs. Barry Lamar Bonds entered into deliberations Friday morning at the Phillip Burton Federal Building, where for three weeks the eight women and four men heard testimony from 25 witnesses and arguments from both sides. The jurors, who began deliberations at 8:30 a.m. PT, met until 3:30 p.m., and will return Monday to continue discussing the fate of Bonds, one of the most accomplished players in baseball history being charged with giving false testimony and obstructing justice. Monday's proceedings will begin with a read-back of prosecution witness Kathy Hoskins' testimony, which included her eyewitness account of having seen trainer Greg Anderson inject"
Whatever the verdict, Giants need a plan for dealing with Barry Bonds
April 7
San Jose Mercury News
 columnist Mark Purdy
"The defense rested Wednesday. The rest of us won't. We are on edge. We are potentially on track for a most awkward confluence of events come Friday afternoon. Closing arguments in the Barry Bonds perjury trial will take place Thursday morning. The jury then will begin deliberations, no later than Friday morning at the federal courthouse near San Francisco City Hall. So brace yourself. If a verdict is reached rapidly enough, the jury's decision could be announced "... that's right, during the Giants' home opener that afternoon. Even if the jury isn't finished by Friday, the verdict almost surely will arrive early next week as the Giants host the Los Angeles Dodgers in a three-game series."
Jury may get Bonds's case Thursday
April 7
New York Times
 
"On the 11th day of Barry Bonds's perjury trial, the defense stood in front of the jury Wednesday and announced that it was resting its case without calling a single witness. Several jurors looked relieved and exhaled deeply. Others smiled. After sitting through eight days of testimony from 25 government witnesses - including some who provided enough details about drug testing to fill a notebook - the jury was on the cusp of being able to discuss its opinions about the case. "We are expecting that you will get this case for decision tomorrow," Judge Susan Illston of United States District Court told the jury Wednesday morning before excusing it for the day."
Barry Bonds trial: Defense rests, case soon to jury
April 7
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"The prosecutors who have portrayed Barry Bonds as a steroid cheat and the defense lawyers who contend he is being framed will square off today in San Francisco federal court. Testimony in the perjury trial of baseball's home run champion came to an abrupt end Wednesday when defense lawyers said they would not call the former Giants star - or anyone else - to the witness stand. "The defense rests," lawyer Allen Ruby told Judge Susan Illston. The defense team had said it might call half a dozen witnesses, including two of Bonds' former lawyers, Michael Rains and Laura Enos, and his former stretching trainer, Harvey Shields. Ruby had suggested that Bonds himself might take the stand. At an"
Prosecutors drop one of five perjury charges against Bonds
April 6
San Jose Mercury News
 
"Home run king Barry Bonds is being tried on charges he lied to a federal grand jury when he said he never knowingly took steroids. Follow Mercury News reporter Howard Mintz's account of the trial in this live blog from the San Francisco courtroom. During the trial's lunch break, check the Barry Bonds section for a special live chat with sports columnist Mark Purdy. 9:22 a.m.: Trial adjourned for the day, closing arguments set for Thursday The trial is done for today, and the lawyers will return in the morning for closing arguments. They will submit proposed jury instructions at some point today. Federal prosecutors plan to argue for about an hour and a half, and defense lawyers plan to"
Judge bars use of secret tape in Barry Bonds trial
April 6
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Prosecutors rested their perjury case against Barry Bonds on Tuesday after the judge refused to let the jury hear a secret tape of the slugger's former business manager and his surgeon discussing the BALCO steroids raid. In more than two weeks of trial, the government called more than a dozen witnesses - baseball players, doping scientists and onetime Bonds confidants - in an effort to prove that the former Giants star lied in 2003 when he told a grand jury that he had never knowingly used banned drugs. Bonds pleaded not guilty to four charges of lying under oath and one charge of obstruction of justice. After prosecutor Matthew Parrella said the government had no more witnesses, lead"
New secretly taped recording might turn tide in Bonds case
April 5
USA Today
 
"Steve Hoskins' first secretly taped recording did not appear to provide the incriminating evidence that could truly bolster the prosecution's perjury and obstruction-of-justice case against Barry Bonds. His second one, if admissible, might prove more powerful. The government on Monday produced a 15-minute tape it contended would show Bonds' former personal assistant and business associate discussing the home run king's use of steroids with orthopedic surgeon Arthur Ting, who operated on Bonds eight times. Ting severely damaged Hoskins' credibility Thursday when he said they had talked about steroids once and not directly about Bonds using them. Hoskins had testified in the trial's first"
Prosecution likely set to rest case in Bonds trial
April 4
MLB.com
 
"The prosecution is wrapping up its witness list and is expected to rest its case as early as Monday in the federal trial charging Barry Bonds with giving false testimony to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) grand jury in 2003. The first two weeks of the trial of baseball's all-time home run leader have included testimony from Bonds' former business manager, his former mistress, one current and three former Major League players, three federal agents and 10 scientists. The Giants' equipment manager and the trainer for the team during the time in question took the stand, as did Bonds' surgeon. And then there was testimony Thursday from his former personal shopper, who said she"
Bonds' sad saga no longer news
April 3
Orange County Register
 columnist Jeff Miller
"We've been told that Barry Bonds once received an injection of presumably a performance-enhancer in his belly button. We've been told that Bonds threatened to chop off the head of his former girlfriend and slice out her breast implants "because he paid for them." We've been told that Bonds' testicles shrunk. What, though, have we really learned in the perjury trial of baseball's all-time most prolific home run hitter? Plenty. But none of it has been about Barry Bonds. Instead, the most interesting development is what we've learned about ourselves. We've learned how disposable celebrity is in America. We've learned how quickly we're willing to turn and move on. We've learned how hollow"
Velarde says he got drugs from Bonds' trainer
March 31
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"A former infielder for the Oakland A's and New York Yankees testified Wednesday that Barry Bonds' trainer sold him banned drugs and gave him injections before and during baseball's 2002 season. Randy Velarde was the fourth - and last - baseball player to testify for the government in Bonds' trial on charges of lying under oath in 2003 to the grand jury that investigated the BALCO sports steroid scandal. Like the other three players called to the witness stand, Velarde said he got drugs from Greg Anderson, Bonds' boyhood friend and weight trainer. The trainer sold him perhaps $800 worth of human growth hormone and an unknown injectable substance, Velarde said. The injectable stuff provided"
Giambi: I got steroids from Barry Bonds' trainer
March 30
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Jason Giambi, the former New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics slugger, testified Tuesday that he got undetectable steroids and other banned drugs from Barry Bonds' weight trainer. Giambi, now a first baseman for the Colorado Rockies, was the first of three baseball players who testified at Bonds' perjury trial. Each of them said that for a time trainer Greg Anderson was their connection for performance-enhancing substances. Giambi told the federal court jury in San Francisco that after his 2002 season with the Yankees, he and Bonds joined an American all-star team for a baseball tour of Japan. Bonds brought Anderson. "I was picking Greg's brain about what kind of training Barry was"
Ex-lover's testimony brings more sleaze to Barry Bonds trial
March 29
San Jose Mercury News
 columnist Mark Purdy
"(Parental advisory: This column not suitable for Little Leaguers.) The shipment of dirty laundry arrived Monday morning as advertised. In fact, the federal courthouse in San Francisco might need to be fumigated after the testimony of Kimberly Bell in the Barry Bonds perjury trial. Bell, Bonds' former mistress, spent almost six hours on the witness stand. She testified about Bonds' alleged steroid use, his shrinking male body parts, his back acne, the house he helped her buy in Arizona -- and as a special sordid bonus, the concept of "wife cities" and "girlfriend cities" in baseball road-trip culture. I could be wrong. But in catching glances at Bonds throughout the day, I detected for the"
Barry Bonds' ex says he discussed steroid use
March 29
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Barry Bonds' former girlfriend testified Monday that the ex-Giant confessed to her that he was using steroids, contending that "other players" were also using drugs to succeed in big-league baseball. Kimberly Bell, who says she dated the ballplayer for nine years, told the jury in Bonds' perjury trial that baseball's home run champion blamed a 1999 career-threatening elbow injury on his steroid use. The drugs "somehow caused the muscles and tendons to grow faster than they could handle and (the elbow) somehow blew out," Bell said Bonds told her after the 1999 baseball season. Bell, a San Jose graphic artist for much of the relationship, said Bonds told her he used banned drugs"
Barry Bonds' former mistress expected to give graphic testimony in court Monday
March 28
New York Daily News
 
"Kimberly Bell, a former mistress of Barry Bonds, is expected to take the witness stand in the slugger's perjury trial Monday and give graphic testimony about changes she observed in the slugger's body at the peak of his home run prowess. The government's pre-trial filings say that Bell, who posed nude for Playboy in November 2007, will testify that beginning in 2000 she observed Bonds with "bloating, acne on the shoulders and back, hair loss and testicle shrinkage" - all documented side-effects of steroid abuse. Bell is also expected to say Bonds told her about his steroid use and suffered from steroid-fueled rages. Her testimony will likely be subject to vigorous cross-examination from"
Barry Bonds trial: Expert details shrinking testicles, growing extremities as PED side-effects
March 25
New York Daily News
 
"With the Barry Bonds trial likely to last several weeks, the 12 jurors who will decide if the home run king is a felon were probably hoping for some entertaining material, and they could do a lot worse than orchidometers. Orchidometers, as the jury learned Thursday, are devices used to measure a man's testicles. And while there's no evidence an orchidometer was ever used on Bonds, prosecutors have made his testicle size a central feature of their case as they try to prove Bonds misled the BALCO grand jury in 2003. Bonds' former mistress Kimberly Bell, who once posed for Playboy, was at the courthouse Thursday but won't testify until next week. She is expected to tell jurors that starting"
Bonds trial testimony centers on steroid conversations
March 24
New York Times
 
"When the recording of a taped conversation began to play Wednesday at Barry Bonds's perjury trial, the jurors could barely hear what was being said. The voices were garbled and the background noise was loud. But the gist of the conversation was understood. As jurors studied copies of the transcript, they furiously took notes. What they were hearing, prosecutors say, is strong evidence that Bonds used steroids. On the tape, in which Bonds is mentioned once, a man was heard asking another about the problems of injecting steroids in the same location on the body every time."
Ex-friend: Bonds' steroid use was 'out of hand'
March 24
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"Barry Bonds' steroid use was so "out of hand" that his former business manager made a secret recording in the Giants' clubhouse as part of a campaign to dissuade the ballplayer from using banned drugs, the ex-employee testified Wednesday. Steve Hoskins was Bonds' boyhood friend and his business manager until a bitter breakup in 2003. That year, he testified, he recorded weight trainer Greg Anderson describing the array of steroids that he was allegedly providing to the Giants left fielder. Hoskins, the government's second witness in Bonds' trial on perjury charges, said he had spent years trying to get Bonds off steroids. He said he made the tape for Bobby Bonds, a former Giants outfielder"
Bonds' trial won't change many minds
March 23
Yahoo! Sports
 columnist Tim Brown
"Barry Bonds is in a suit and tie again, in a Northern California courtroom again, the outfit people wear and the place people go when they've run out of people to lie to. He is surrounded by lawyers again, the company people keep when they've run out of people to lie to. It's sad, really. Sad that a man must dress up for and salary people in order for them to believe in him, when at age 46 he must consider the dilemma of accountability for the first time, and then in the harshest of lights. I think of Bonds no differently than I do Bobby Estalella, former journeyman catcher and key witness in USA vs. Bonds, or any of their morally, ethically and legally challenged brethren. Hit 14 home"
Opening statements in Barry Bonds case run gamut
March 23
USA Today
 
"It all comes down to the truth: Federal prosecutors say Barry Bonds flouted it repeatedly. His defense team says the government's case is fibbing. The clashing narratives highlighted opening statements Tuesday in the perjury and obstruction of justice case against Bonds, baseball's single-season and career home run champion who is ensnarled in a federal investigation of performance-enhancing drugs. "All (Bonds) had to do was tell the truth, but he couldn't do it," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matt Parrella said. "And the evidence will show that he planned not to do it." "Quite frankly, an unbelievable story," Parrella said, rattling off a series of "lies" by Bonds about steroid use. He referred"
Federal agent: Bonds' testimony impeded probe
March 23
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"The federal drug agent who spearheaded the BALCO steroids case accused Barry Bonds on Tuesday of thwarting his investigation by giving grand jury testimony that was "inconsistent with the facts." Jeff Novitzky, the government's point man in a series of high-profile probes into steroids in sports, was the leadoff prosecution witness in the former Giants outfielder's trial on charges of lying under oath to a federal grand jury. During his 2003 testimony before the grand jury probing the steroid ring operated by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative in Burlingame, Bonds said he had never knowingly used BALCO drugs. The testimony, which came after Bonds was granted immunity from prosecution for"
It's Opening Day, and they're playing for keeps at last
March 22
New York Times
 columnist William C. Rhoden
"The baseball season will not open until next week. For a veteran prosecutor and a determined home run king, however, opening day was Monday, with the start of the long-awaited perjury trial of Barry Bonds. On one side is the prosecution, led by Matthew Parrella, an assistant United States attorney. The federal government's pursuit of Bonds has been relentless, and at times it has seemed more like a persecution than a prosecution. Then there is Bonds, 46, never a media darling and hardly a sympathetic figure, but a looming icon in this city. Indeed, as both sides prepared for their opening statements Tuesday, one of the overriding concerns for the prosecution is whether it can get a fair"
Bonds' trial begins in San Francisco
March 22
MLB.com
 
"Barry Bonds entered the Phillip Burton Federal Building and United States Courthouse shortly before 8 a.m. local time Monday, took the elevator to the 19th floor and entered Courtroom 10. And when the packed courtroom rose as Judge Susan Illston entered at 8:36 a.m. PT, the trial of Case No. 3:07-cr-00732-SI, USA v. Barry Lamar Bonds began in earnest. Bonds, the former star outfielder for the Giants and Pirates who in 2007 became baseball's all-time home run leader at the end of a 22-year Major League career, is charged with four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice. His long-awaited trial began Monday with a jury-selection process that took up most of the first day."
Bonds spectacle gets under way with jury selection
March 22
Oakland Tribune
 columnist Mark Purdy
"Barry Bonds showed up early. He stepped off the 19th-floor elevator of the federal courthouse in San Francisco a few minutes before 8 a.m. Monday, more than half an hour before his perjury trial was to begin. Bonds didn't appear nervous. But after taking his seat at the defense table, he did more pregame stretching than we ever witnessed when he was playing for the Giants. Bonds then leaned back to watch the show. On Monday, this consisted of jury selection -- which was far more entertaining than normally snooze-inducing jury selection has a right to be. Eventually, eight women and four men were seated, plus two alternates. But along the way, there were references to Google, baseball team"
Barry Bonds faces his biggest game
March 20
Oakland Tribune
 
"For nearly eight years, the court of public opinion has deliberated over whether former Giants superstar Barry Bonds lied about knowingly using steroids as he shattered baseball's all-time home run records. Now, it will be a jury's turn to hand down a verdict. And while Bonds' legacy as one of baseball's greatest players and his chances for the Hall of Fame have been at stake in the public debate, a jury's decision could cost him far more. Striking out in court could mean a felony conviction and perhaps time in a prison cell. On Monday, Bonds will appear for the biggest game of his life, the beginning of his trial on three counts of lying to a grand jury in December 2003 about using"
Mr. Anderson, we need you on the witness stand
March 20
San Jose Mercury News
 columnist Mark Purdy
"Dear Greg Anderson: Talk. Please. Consider this to be a polite request from someone who has followed the Barry Bonds case from the start, from a guy who simply wants it to finally be over, with a real conclusion instead of what we're likely to get -- a verdict with the jury making a guess instead of really knowing, whether the verdict is guilty or not guilty. Mr. Anderson, we need you on the witness stand. By now, most people know your name and your story. You were Bonds' personal trainer. You were with him through his great home run seasons with the Giants. You were allowed to hang around the clubhouse, even though you didn't work for the team, simply because Bonds demanded that you be"
Selecting jury for Bonds is hard in Giants country
March 16
New York Times
 
"When Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron's career home run record in August 2007, he was cheered in San Francisco despite the suspicion of steroid use that clouded his achievement. He played his final game for the Giants that September and was indicted two months later on charges that he knowingly lied in 2003 to a federal grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative steroids case. Now Bonds is finally going to have his day in court. And fans who once cheered him may be among the 100 potential jurors for his perjury trial, which - after two years of delays - is set to begin next week in United States District Court in San Francisco. As lawyers on both sides winnow the pool to 12"
Judge to reveal jurors' names after Bonds trial
March 15
San Francisco Chronicle
 
"A federal judge in San Francisco won't reveal the names of jurors in the Barry Bonds perjury case until the trial is over. In a ruling Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston said she was concerned that "jurors could be approached or even harassed or offered money to provide information about themselves or the case" if their identities were disclosed, as is routine in American trials. Bonds goes on trial Monday, accused of lying under oath about his use of steroids. The former Giants star says he never knowingly took banned drugs. He has pleaded not guilty. In her ruling, the judge said she also wanted to prevent jurors from learning about the existence of "various documents" that"
Judge Allows Players' Testimony in Bonds Perjury Trial
March 8
New York Times
 
"Despite repeated efforts by Barry Bonds's lawyers to bar the testimony of several current and former major league players in Bonds's perjury trial this month, those athletes will be allowed to take the stand, a federal judge ruled on Monday in San Francisco. Bonds's defense team had asked Judge Susan Illston of United States District Court to reconsider her previous ruling to let the players testify about their connection to Greg Anderson, Bonds's former trainer, at the trial, which begins March 21. Those lawyers said the jury was likely to apply "guilt by association" to Bonds when other athletes talk about their dealings with Anderson, who prosecutors say dealt performance-enhancing"
Barry Bonds again pleads not guilty
March 2
ESPN.com
 
"The saga that has become the United States vs. Barry Lamar Bonds -- now more than seven years in the making -- inflated into a full-blown odyssey Tuesday, just three weeks before the home run king is scheduled to go to trial and face perjury and obstruction of justice charges. How else to describe a day in which Bonds entered one end of San Francisco's federal courthouse at precisely the same time Greg Anderson, his former personal trainer, childhood friend and now-tight-lipped ally entered from the other end? A day in which Bonds had to plead not guilty yet again -- that's four times now -- because the government repeatedly has had to rewrite its indictment. The latest charging document"
Resolution Requested in Bonds Case
February 19
New York Times
 
"The federal judge presiding over Barry Bonds's perjury case asked the sides on Friday to find a way to resolve the case before the trial next month. In a hearing in San Francisco, prosecutors told United States District Court Judge Susan Illston that they would discuss the option of a plea agreement with Bonds's lawyers. But Bonds's lead lawyer, Allen Ruby, said he expected the case to go to trial. Bonds faces five felony charges - four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice - in connection with the grand jury testimony he gave in 2003 in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative steroids case. His trial is scheduled for March 21. Bonds is set to appear before the judge on"
Federal judge allows key tape recording in Bonds perjury trial
February 16
San Jose Mercury News
 
"A federal judge will allow prosecutors to play a tape-recorded 2003 conversation of Barry Bonds' former personal trainer allegedly discussing giving the star ballplayer steroids, over the objections of defense lawyers who hoped to keep it out of his upcoming perjury trial. In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston approved the government's use of the tape recording, created by former Bonds business associate Steve Hoskins in the San Francisco Giants locker room. The tape, government documents allege, depicts former Bonds trainer Greg Anderson discussing steroid use and the complexities of injecting Bonds with steroids. Anderson has refused to testify in the trial, and Bonds'"