SAN FRANCISCO ? It's early, but Barry Bonds and his All-Star legal team appear to have taken a lead in what is expected to be a month-long trial.
By Ben Margot, AP
Barry Bonds leaves a federal courthouse in San Francisco on day four of his perjury trial.
The government's most promising witness, Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson, who allegedly injected the former baseball star with steroids multiple times, has staunchly refused to testify ? landing him in jail for the duration of the trial. (The case is off Friday, resuming Monday.)
Without Anderson's cooperation, federal prosecutors "face significant challenges in marshalling direct evidence" that Bonds perjured himself before a grand jury in 2007 by denying he used steroids, says Marcellus McRae, a former federal prosecutor based in Los Angeles.
The court has excluded several drug tests and doping calendars allegedly connected to Bonds because Anderson would not authenticate them.
The government seemed to score with the jury of eight women and four men with eye-opening testimony from Steve Hoskins, Bonds' childhood friend and former sports memorabilia business partner.
In detailed testimony Wednesday, the soft-spoken Hoskins described Bonds' desire to learn about anabolic steroids and ultimately his use, including a 2000 complaint that "his butt was sore from the (steroid) injections."
Hoskins said he did not see Bonds inject himself.
But under relentless cross-examination Wednesday and Thursday from Bonds' attorney, Allen Ruby ? one of about a dozen legal experts on his side, vs. a handful for the government ? Hoskins was hazy on dates and sometimes seemed rattled.
Ruby doggedly questioned Hoskins about allegations Hoskins stole money from Bonds and committed forgery, leading to a falling-out between the two in 2003. The government dropped those charges, Ruby claims, when Hoskins agreed to testify against the home run king.
Ruby took Hoskins to task for his secret recording of Anderson, physician Arthur Ting and others. (Recording someone without their knowledge is illegal in California.) Still, Hoskins told Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella that on multiple occasions, with Bonds' approval, Hoskins signed many documents with Bonds' name. And Bonds did not sue Hoskins in civil court, as he could have.
Jeff Novitzky, the former IRS agent who spearheaded the investigation that led to Bonds' indictment, described finding a "treasure trove" of drugs and documentation (linking those drugs to athletes including Bonds).
"The government has started off well and has set the tone that in order for the jury to believe Bonds, it will have to disbelieve a group of witnesses, some of whom have no real incentive to lie," Vermont Law School professor Michael McCann says.
Because the government's indictment is structured so it can obtain a conviction without proving that Bonds took steroids, the onus is on the defense, McCann says. The defense needs to convince the jury that Bonds did not know what Anderson administered to him ? especially after six players are expected to testify they knowingly took steroids from Anderson.
Other significant figures who could testify next week include former Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative executive James Valente, San Francisco Giants clubhouse manager Mike Murphy and ex-Giants trainer Stan Conte.
The pace of the trial this week means it will almost certainly overlap with baseball's opening day Thursday.
"The congressional hearings (in 2005) and hollow denials were the low point, and MLB had hoped to put this behind it," says Joshua Berman, a former federal prosecutor.
"However, this trial drags the public back to the reality of the steroid use of the last decades just as opening day approaches."
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