Baseball home-run champion Barry Bonds, a former Atherton resident, was convicted by a federal jury in San Francisco on Wednesday (April 13) of one count of obstructing justice in 2003 testimony before a grand jury.
The jury in the court of U.S. District Susan Illston was unable to reach a verdict on three other counts in which Bonds was accused of lying to the grand jury.
Illston declared a mistrial on those counts. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella declined in court to say whether prosecutors will retry Bonds on those charges.
The verdict came on the jury’s fourth day of deliberations.
Illston scheduled a status conference on May 20 to discuss setting a sentencing date for Bonds, who is 46.
Defense attorney Dennis Riordan said Bonds’ attorneys will file a motion by that date asking for a new trial.
The grand jury was investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs by the Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO.
In the counts on which the jury could not reach a verdict, Bonds was accused of lying when he said he never knowingly received steroids or human growth hormone from his trainer, Greg Anderson, and never received any kind of injection from Anderson.
Bonds is one of 11 people who were charged either with illegal distribution of drugs or with lying in connection with the BALCO probe.
Two other sports figures who were convicted of lying received sentences of home detention.
Bonds broke Major League Baseball’s single-season and career home-run records while playing for the San Francisco Giants.
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How many millions of my tax dollars did this witch hunt cost? Do the Feds spend this much money going after hard drug kingpins?
One count of obstruction.
Maybe he can get pardoned the way Scooter did, for outing a CIA covert operative.
Sounds like even if he doesn’t get a Scooter pardon, the typical sentence for “obstruction of justice” is a short term of house arrest. I wouldn’t mind spending some quite time in his mansion.
No one is acting like they don’t think he used steroids anymore. Can you think of a reason why the trainer refused to testify? Answer: Because Barry would have been toast if he did. Too bad they can’t take the home run title away and give it to someone who deserves it.