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No Indictment on Bonds

Discussion in 'Other Sports' started by pgabriel, Jul 21, 2006.

  1. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    but the government will continue waste your tax dollars.


    link


    SAN FRANCISCO -- They aren't through with Barry Bonds, not yet.

    Cossack: Feds need evidence
    Barry Bonds escaped indictment Thursday, and Roger Cossack thinks that a lack of evidence is the only reason that could have happened.

    With Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson refusing to testify to the federal grand jury, the government may be struggling to show that the San Francisco Giants' slugger committed a crime.


    The federal grand jury considering possible perjury and tax-evasion charges against the star slugger expired Thursday without an indictment. Hours later, Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, walked out of a prison where he spent two weeks for refusing to testify against his childhood friend.

    "We are not finished," U.S. Attorney Kevin Ryan said. "We have postponed the decision [to indict] for another day in light of some recent developments."

    Though prosecutors wouldn't confirm the existence of a new grand jury, Anderson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, said there was one.

    He said his client has been subpoenaed to testify before a new panel that will take up the question of whether Bonds lied under oath when he said he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs. Geragos said Anderson won't budge.

    "They can subpoena him every day for the rest of this year, and it doesn't matter," Geragos said. "He's not going to talk."

    Bonds arrived at AT&T Park with his 16-year-old batboy son. As reporters moved toward his locker, team spokesman Blake Rhodes said Bonds would have no comment.

    Bonds hit his 722nd career home run Thursday night against San Diego, but left the ballpark without speaking to reporters.

    Major League Baseball also declined to comment.

    Giants owner Peter Magowan said he hoped to see a resolution soon.

    "I think all of us would like to see a resolution, I mean everybody in baseball," Magowan said. "I'm sure the commissioner would like to see one, I'm sure Barry would like to see one, and I'm sure the fans would like to see one."


    Speculation has been mounting for weeks that Bonds, one of the biggest names in professional sports, would be indicted Thursday with the grand jury expiring. His lawyers had said they were preparing a defense.

    But soon after the grand jury reported to the federal courthouse for the final day of its probe, the U.S. Attorney's office issued a statement saying it "is not seeking an indictment [Thursday] in connection with the ongoing steroids-related investigation."

    "They don't even have enough to indict a ham sandwich, let alone Barry Bonds," the slugger's lawyer, Michael Rains, said.

    Joseph Russienello, the U.S. Attorney in San Francisco from 1982 to 1990, said handing the case off to a new grand jury means the federal government can lock up Anderson for the length of the new grand jury's term, which could extend beyond a year. The threat of a lengthy jail term can convince even the most intransigent witnesses to cave.

    "It's no longer a two-week vacation," Russienello said. "Twelve months usually has a way of getting people sensitized to giving truthful testimony."

    Rains said there was "temporary relief in the news we heard today." But he seemed to back away slightly from Bonds' earlier statements that he didn't know the substances given to him by Anderson were steroids.

    "He was suspicious in light of what he had read as to whether those were steroids or not," Rains told reporters outside the federal courthouse.

    Anderson appears to be the key to whether perjury charges could stick against Bonds.

    "We will continue to move forward actively in this investigation -- including continuing to seek the truthful testimony of witnesses whose testimony the grand jury is entitled to hear," said Luke Macaulay, a spokesman for Ryan.

    Bonds testified in 2003 that he thought substances given to him by Anderson were arthritis balm and flaxseed oil. Authorities suspected Bonds was lying and that those items were "the clear" and "the cream" -- two performance-enhancing drugs tied to the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab exposed as a steroids supplier to top athletes in baseball, track and other sports.

    Although Bonds was promised immunity as long as he told the truth, doubts soon surfaced.

    • His former girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, testified the slugger told her he had used steroids, according to Bell's lawyer. Bonds' attorney accused Bell of trying to extort money from Bonds and using the platform to promote a book that never was published.

    • IRS agent Jeff Novitzky, lead investigator in the steroids probe, said in court filings that BALCO founder Victor Conte told him Bonds used "the clear" on a regular basis.

    • Federal agents who raided Anderson's house seized doping calendars, price lists and other documents pointing to Bonds' use of steroids and human growth hormone. Federal prosecutors say they need Anderson, in part, to interpret the calendars, which seem to spell out Bonds' schedule for using performance-enhancing drugs.

    Anderson was one of five men convicted in the BALCO scandal. He was sentenced to three months behind bars and three months of home confinement in October after pleading guilty to money laundering and steroid distribution.

    He was called to testify before the perjury grand jury and refused. A federal judge found him in contempt of court and ordered him jailed.

    Geragos protested, saying Anderson was the victim of an illegal government wiretap and that because Anderson's refusal to cooperate with government investigators is noted in his earlier plea agreement, he cannot be forced to testify.

    "He took three months in jail rather than cooperate," Geragos said.

    He also says Anderson can't trust that his testimony will be kept confidential because other BALCO grand jury testimony has been leaked to the press. Excerpts of testimony by Bonds and other key players in the case was published by the San Francisco Chronicle.

    Geragos said he plans to repeat the same arguments.

    Bonds' lawyer said Bonds was elated when he heard of Anderson's release and asked when the two can start working out together again.

    "He's hoping this is the end of it," Rains said, "but he doesn't know that, nor do I."

    Allegations of steroid use long have plagued Bonds, who passed Babe Ruth in May to become second only to Hank Aaron on the career home run list. They intensified in late 2003, when he testified before the original BALCO grand jury, which took testimony from about two dozen athletes.

    Without Anderson's help, prosecutors still could indict Bonds on charges alleging he failed to pay taxes on money made through sales of autographs and other memorabilia. There is also the possibility Bonds could be indicted on perjury charges without Anderson's testimony.

    "There comes a point in time ... where everybody needs to move on," Rains said. "We hope we have arrived at that point today."
     
  2. The Real Shady

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    They've got to protect Hank's record at all cost.
     
  3. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Perjury is serious. Ask Martha Stewart. Was her conviction a waste of tax dollars too?

    He is only safe now because some dumbass is willing to spend time in jail for him. But I'm sure Bonds will reward him for it - $$$.

    Your love affair with this guy is funny.
     
  4. edwardc

    edwardc Member

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    It's a witch hunt for Bonds they don't have anything on him.
     
  5. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    Bonds isn't a sympathetic figure at all.

    Having said that...how many other players were named in the Balco report?? Why aren't they being pursued??

    Failing to pay taxes on autographs and memorabilia....hell, they could pin that on nearly every guy participating in those card shows. But for some reason, it's only Bonds they're after. He'll take it worst...but he and a handful of guys will pay the price for an entire era of players using the same crap. As Buster Olney said yesterday, I bet 75% of the awards won during the past 15 years (Cy Young, MVP, etc) were done so with the assistance of steroids or the like.

    Meanwhile, there's still no reliable test for HGH in any sport.
     
  6. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    Only because his trainer is willing to spend time in prison for him rather than talk.
     
  7. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    More gay references, I'm not into that dude.

    seriously mewogi, you're smarter than just to rely on the "you're in love with that guy" argument. just because you hate doesn't make it right, just as much as me liking him doesn't make it wrong.
     
  8. Mr. Brightside

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    His trainer was released from jail after 15 days. Thus showing government has no case!
     
  9. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    as far as martha was concerned, insider trading is worse, because we're all potential investors and no one should have an unfair advantage. and it didn't take years of investigation to convict her.
     
  10. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    You only think his is "innocent" because of your personal liking. There could be no other possible reason.
     
  11. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    But to millions of white female homemakers, she was of course innocent.
     
  12. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    I don't give a damn whether he's innocent are not, its not worth the effort to catch somebody because they lied about using steroids.
     
  13. MR. MEOWGI

    MR. MEOWGI Contributing Member

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    The government does not take perjury lightly.
     
  14. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    Heck
    Someone was saying that most of the guys on the juice were pitchers
    [which is why HRs are still up POST juice]

    It is crazy the amount of time money and energy being put into this
    How do they prove HE KNEW he was taking anything

    hell alot of Drs probably couldn't recognize a steriod without the label
    on the bottle.
    How is a 'dumb jock' suppose to ?

    He guilty until proven innocent in most folx minds
    but not mine

    They didn't have this much zest and zeal going after Ken Lay

    Rocket River
    BTw I thought Martha was Insider Trading . . but plead to perjury
     
  15. Mr. Brightside

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    The point is that the government has greater things to be worried about. Like gay marriage or online gambling.
     
  16. edwardc

    edwardc Member

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    If he wasn't to spend to all he would have to due is plead the 5th just as Mcguire did.
     
  17. MadMax

    MadMax Member

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    i'm surprised you're able to muster such prosecutorial zeal. you're normally telling us that punishing people for their crimes does no good.
     
  18. edwardc

    edwardc Member

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    Partly true but why just go after Bonds there are others that have tested positive for riods but not bonds.They areen't going after them.
     
  19. underoverup

    underoverup Member

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    here come all the bonds haters :rolleyes: what they are doing to barry is no different than what the french have done to lance. what a waste of money :rolleyes:
     
  20. pgabriel

    pgabriel Educated Negro

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    and I understand the case was not about him, it was about BALCO, just like the martha stewart case wasn't about her. but really, if they can't get him on perjury, they just need to move on. the BALCO guys already did their time, they're already out, its time to move on. appearantly there are other suppliers out there to catch if you really want to clean up the game.
     

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