Barry Bonds indicted on perjury, obstruction charges

cnredd · #1 (**permalink**) 11-15-2007, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Barry Bonds was indicted Thursday for perjury and obstruction of justice, charged with lying when he told a federal grand jury that he did not knowingly use performance-enhancing drugs.

The indictment, unsealed Thursday by federal prosecutors in San Francisco, is the culmination of a four-year federal probe into whether he lied under oath to a grand jury investigating steroid use by elite athletes.

The indictment comes three months after the 43-year-old Bonds, one of the biggest names in professional sports, passed Hank Aaron to become baseball's career home run leader, his sport's most hallowed record. Bonds, who parted ways with the San Francisco Giants at the end of last season and has yet to sign with another team, also holds the game's single-season home run record of 73.

While Bonds was chasing Aaron amid the adulation of San Franciscans and the scorn of baseball fans almost everywhere else, due to his notoriously prickly personality and nagging steroid allegations, a grand jury quietly worked behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on the long-rumored indictment.

"I'm surprised," said John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."

Burris did not know of the indictment before being alerted by The Associated Press. He said he would immediately call Bonds to notify him.

The indictment charges Bonds with lying when he said that he didn't knowingly take steroids given to him by his personal trainer Greg Anderson. He also denied taking steroids at anytime in 2001 when he was pursuing the single season home-run record.

"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes," the indictment reads.

He is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.

"Greg wouldn't do that," Bonds testified in December 2003 when asked if Anderson ever gave him any drugs that needed to be injected. "He knows I'm against that stuff."

Bonds is by far the highest-profile figure caught up in the wide-ranging government steroids investigation launched in 2002 with the raid of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative -- now infamously known as BALCO -- the Burlingame-based supplements lab at the center of a large steroids distribution ring.

That asterisk next to the record just got a little larger...

team_barlo · #2 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 12:44 AM

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Originally Posted by cnredd

Barry Bonds indicted on perjury, obstruction charges

That asterisk next to the record just got a little larger...

No way--go figure!

He's a former Pirate just as a fyi.

cnredd · #3 (**permalink**) 11-20-2007, 12:28 PM

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Originally Posted by team_barlo

No way--go figure!

He's a former Pirate just as a fyi.

He's now a former potential Hall of Famer...

team_barlo · #4 (**permalink**) 11-21-2007, 07:47 PM

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Originally Posted by cnredd

He's now a former potential Hall of Famer...

Fine by me if he is truly guilty--and I think he could well be. I honestly don't get it. Why would you want a record or a trophy that you won by cheating? You'd know you cheated to get it everytime you looked at it. I'd much rather say I was "second best" at something and have it be the truth.

Noblese_Oblige · #5 (**permalink**) 11-22-2007, 01:31 PM

the people of the Bay Area, especially the Giants fans completely and totally defend this guy. I am not a baseball fan and wouldn't like either the transplanted philly team or the transplanted NYC team in any case.

the people here don't care at all if he is guilty or not.

Noblese_Oblige · #6 (**permalink**) 11-22-2007, 01:33 PM

Oh yeah. And the main defense is that this is about racism and not about lying to the grand jury.

I kid you not. The letters to the Sporting Green editor and the editor in general run about 60% with that excuse and McQuire is constantly mentioned.

I guess they miss the point that McQuire didn't lie to Congress or the Grand Jury.

team_barlo · #7 (**permalink**) 11-23-2007, 01:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Noblese_Oblige

Oh yeah. And the main defense is that this is about racism and not about lying to the grand jury.

I kid you not. The letters to the Sporting Green editor and the editor in general run about 60% with that excuse and McQuire is constantly mentioned.

I guess they miss the point that McQuire didn't lie to Congress or the Grand Jury.

The man tested positive for steroids. How is that in any way racist? I am the last person on the planet to look down at a person just because they are different from me in some minor way, but I get so VERY tired of "racist" being screamed so much of the time. There are cases where it is a very warranted accusation to be sure, but stuff like this just jades the public to it I think, and that is very counterproductive to the equality issue at large.

Just because someone doesn't like the answer they get does NOT necessarily make it racist.

Thanks for the post, btw.

Noblese_Oblige · #8 (**permalink**) 11-23-2007, 02:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by team_barlo

The man tested positive for steroids. How is that in any way racist?

In this area EVERYTHING is about how the white man is victimizing the black man in one way or another.

I am not at all kidding.

You can see this in action by listening to PBS's KQED on the internet if you don't believe.

The other day there were a dozen stories on a myriad of topics and it all came down to racism.

This was on the local shows such as the California Report and Michael Krazny's forum as well as the national shows like Talk of the Nation.

Quote:

I am the last person on the planet to look down at a person just because they are different from me in some minor way, but I get so VERY tired of "racist" being screamed so much of the time.

Me too, it is an effort to end the debate and to prevent anyone from taking the "cause" away from the poverty pimps like Sharpton or Jackson.

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