Overzealous Prosecutors Indict Baseball Legend Barry Bonds On Perjury and Obstruction
Holy Hammerin’ Hank’s Balls! They done did it. Former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has been indicted on charges of perjury and obstruction for allegedly lying in court during an ongoing investigation into the illegal use of anabolic steroids by major league baseball players.
While Bonds was hitting his way past the major league record for home runs, a title set by the aforementioned Hank Aaron with 755, his trainer and long-time friend, Greg Anderson, sat in jail for refusing to testify against his childhood friend about his personal use of steroids. Bonds has maintained his innocence about “knowingly” using the banned substance, to which all parties involved collectively rolled their eyes and sighed heavily.
As the saying goes, they don’t get you for the crime, they get you for the cover-up. Just ask Al Capone and Richard Nixon. Well, “asking” them may be a bit difficult, then again, dead men tell no lies.
Ok, enough with the cliches, the crux of this is that after an intensive investigation by the Senate and federal prosecutors (assisted by the Major League Baseball Commission) it became obvious to some, that perhaps Bonds was not being truthful. From the San Jose Mercury article:
In a five-count indictment, Bonds is accused of repeatedly lying under oath to a federal grand jury in December 2003 when questioned by federal prosecutors about his use of steroids and whether he’d received performance-enhancing drugs. The indictment charges Bonds with four counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for the allegedly false testimony, all felonies that could send him to federal prison if convicted.
The probe into steriod use was part of broader federal case known as the “Balco steroids scandal,” named for the company at the center of the steroid abuse claims. Victor Conte, the founder of Balco has continued to deny any knowledge of Bond’s use of the illegal substance and defended the swatter again after hearing word of the indictment today.
“I certainly haven’t seen all of the evidence in Barry’s case, however, I’ve seen a lot of it and I just don’t think there’s enough to meet the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said in an e-mail to the Mercury News. “They say it’s possible to ‘indict a ham sandwich’ and, unfortunately, I think it’s going to take a very long time for us to find out if that’s what they’ve done.”
Whereas Conte has acknowledged giving multiple performance-enhancing drugs to disgraced Olympic star Marion Jones and other track and field athletes, he has denied knowledge of Bonds’ steroid use.
Barry Bonds lawyer, Michael Rains had strong words for both the media and the federal prosecutors in a statement he released after hearing of the indictment:
“All you need to know about the government’s case is that they leaked an official indictment to every media outlet in America and withheld it from Barry, his lawyer, and everyone else who could read it and defend him,” said Rains.
“Now that their biased allegations must finally be presented openly in a court of law, they won’t be able to hide their unethical misconduct from the public any longer. You won’t read about those facts in this indictment, but now the public will get the whole truth, not just selectively leaked fabrications from anonymous sources.
“What we want to know is whether the media will spend as much time repairing Barry’s reputation as they have destroying it after he is proven innocent by a fair and impartial jury.”
Yes, well maybe a courtesy of a reach around isn’t too much to ask when you are being bent over and screwed, which is seems Bonds is. Don’t get me wrong, perjuring yourself in a court of law is unacceptable and I do NOT condone the use of performance enhancing drugs when they have been banned from a sport, but this is baseball, not pedophilia, or global terrorism, and Bonds’ use of steroids appears to have happened PRIOR to the sport instituting a ban on the substance (2004). Surely our federal court system and Senate have better things to do than go full throttle trying to nail a baseball player for using drugs that may have made him hit balls really far.
I love baseball, and I understand the purists viewpoint about players being true to the sport and leveling the playing field, but let’s have some perspective. This type of thing needs to be handled and regulated by the baseball commission, make them accountable, but not a singled out baseball player. That’s called scapegoating, and I don’t think that’s cool.
These are past times and leisure activities. While some may feel betrayed by Bonds tampering with the game (assuming that is the case) his initial crime was not that of a federal nature. Had he not been forced to appear before a grand jury to begin with, this would not be an issue.
This is an extreme example of the federal government interfering where they don’t belong. This doesn’t compare to say, Michael Vick violating state and federal laws by dogfighting. I just sort of don’t really get it. Sanction him, throw him out of baseball, keep him out of the Hall of Fame if you must, but 30 years in prison? Come on.
Pink Stripe WordPress Theme Designed by Joni Mueller &