Feds unveil new indictment against Barry Bonds

SAN FRANCISCO — Barry Bonds was charged in a new indictment Tuesday with 15 felony counts alleging he lied to a grand jury when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs and that he hampered the federal government's doping investigation.

The career home run leader originally was indicted in November by a federal grand jury on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.

Following a motion by Bonds' lawyers to dismiss the case, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in February ordered prosecutors to rewrite the indictment because multiple alleged lies were lumped into single charges.

On Tuesday, a grand jury handed up a superseding indictment charging Bonds with 14 counts of making false declarations to a grand jury in 2003 and one count of obstruction of justice. No new lies were alleged.

"It's exactly the same," Golden Gate University law professor Peter Keane said. "It's two ways of saying it's lying, and there's really no substantial difference between what he was charged with then and what he is charged with now."

The case against Bonds remains built on whether he lied when he told the grand jury that his personal trainer, Greg Anderson, never supplied him with steroids and human growth hormone.

"Barry Bonds is innocent," the player's lead attorney, Allen Ruby, said. Ruby said Bonds will appear in court to plead not guilty to the new charges.

Bonds' next hearing already had been scheduled for June 6 before the new indictment was unsealed, but Ruby said it is unclear whether Bonds' will be expected to enter a plea then.

The Major League Baseball Players Association said last week it was investigating whether to file a collusion grievance against teams for not pursuing Bonds, who became a free agent when the Giants decided they didn't want him back after 15 seasons.

The 43-year-old outfielder, a seven-time NL MVP, says he wants to play this year. His agent claims no team has made an offer for the 14-time All-Star. Bonds hit 28 homers last year to raise his total to 762, seven more than Hank Aaron's previous record.

Comments

[oogabooga]

Geez, Bush's Republic Party appointee US "Attorney" in Frisco really has to consider another line of work if all he can do is bust talk show hosts and baseball players. How about the MS13 crime gang roaming Frisco and the Bay area? Too tough to go after? How about the crime syndicate that controls the projects in Frisco? Too tough for you?

[almoguy]

How about the White House?...too tough to go after?

[abouttime]

You would think the Attorney General's Office ould have more pressing "crimes" to pursue.
Impeach the Executive Brach! (And most of the Supreme Court,... and 99% Republican's in Congress and 49% of Democrats who vated to authorize Iraq war).
Barry Bonds is a scapegoat and victime of racial profiling.

[Totto]

Have the Feds been watching football lately? No steroids? How many times has Bush lied about other people's lives and deaths? Where was Bush when baseball was awash in steroids to the benefit of owners like him? Hypocrite! Coward! Prosecute Bush not Bonds.

[browndog2]

15 felony counts for a baseball player?

1 count of lying to the Feds about taking steroids-BUT NO

Counts-

-lying to the Feds
-lying to the Feds in a deposition
-lying to the Feds on page two of a deposition
-lying to the Feds on page two,paragraph 6.
-lying to the Feds on page two,paragraph6,sentence 2.
-conspiracy to lie to the Feds.
-conspiracy to lie to the Feds in a deposition.
-conspiracy to lie to the Feds in a deposition on page two of a deposition

etc,etc....

[jteschke]

I think this is a political prosecution based on Bush's past life as a baseball aficianado. He doesn't like the fact that Bonds broke the record. As a result of these charges, and the dislike he has engendered, he is too radioactive to be hired. My guess is that if the trial is not complete by the time a new administration arrives, and it's not McCain, then the charges will not be aggressively pursued. I also believe that Clemens will be hit because it would be politically incorrect not to go after him, since the inference of a race based prosecution, as correctly noted by another poster, is strong. I'm pretty certain he did do the steroids, but that does not merit federal prosecution.

[NABNYC]

Let me see if I've got this straight. The team (business) owners, with full knowledge, had employees (players) who began using drugs so they could perform better, this was widespread in the industry, there have been entire congressional careers wasted being baseball groupies following the teams around to "study" them, and the uncontroverted conclusion is that lots of players used, everyone knew about it, nobody did anything to stop it.

And after all of that enormous waste of taxpayer money, what does the government do? Indict Barry Bonds. They don't indict the owners, the trainers, the coaches, the managers, all of whom knew. Not Jason Giambi, not Andy Pettite (both of whom I like). Not Mark McGuire (who everyone likes). Not Jose Canseco (who nobody likes). Not Roger Clemens (who absolutely nobody likes). But Barry Bonds. He's the guy, the only one.

What is the difference between Barry Bonds and all these other people? He's black. Gimme an f**ng break.

[maxfusion]

Wow, the folks suffering from BDS (Bush derangement syndrome) are all over this board. I see the race bait profiteers from the central committee are on board too. Al, and Jessie would be proud.

[Will753]

Question: Why is the Fed only interested in the players? How about the owners? Why not football or basketball? Why is this so important when Bush lies everyday? And some how I know we can get HRC for lying about Snippers.

[alted1663]

And the moral of this story is if the feds try to interview you SHUT THE F*#@K UP!

[landmine]

Yep, do a Gonzo: "I don't recall..."

[eurydice]

Are steroids really any worse than chewing tobacco? Athletes have been using performance enhancers as long as there have been sports.

[wadenelson1]

How many lies has George Bush told. How come HE hasn't been indicted.

[bikerdude]

That's a very important point. I don't give a crap what B. Bonds did or didn't do. That arrogant, faux cowboy in the whitehouse lied us into a war, shredded our constitution and is responsible for destroying our economy. His war has cost countless live live and misery. And we can't find it in our hearts to hold him accountable. He needs to be impeached along with his president of vice. He needs to be held accountable.

[digoweli]

Did you know that the private prison industry lobbies the state and federal government for tougher laws so they can have more clients? Digoweli

[bikerdude]

Ablolutely true. There are some locales that are now spending more money building prisons than building schools. One more failure of privatization.

[Passenger57]

Yes...I read an article in the NYT about a town in upstate NY that wanted to shut down an underused prison,and everyone was against it because THE PRISON WAS BIGGEST SOURCE OF INCOME,JOBS,ETC.IN THE TOWN.
One official wondered ,if the prison was shut down,where they would put prisoners if THERE WAS SOME TYPE OF CRIME WAVE IN THE FUTURE. That's pretty sick.
Anyway,it's time the Feds shone their light of Truth on members of the Bush administration.

[HeresJohnny]

This is not a news article; if anyone bothers to actually read what little information is in the article, it would be obvious. It's all about the process of the case, nothing about substance. Let's summarize: Prosecution had four counts of perjury in its original indictment, and each contained multiple cases of perjury. Bonds' lawyers smartly moved for dismissal because the prosecution's indictment was a mess, and the judge ordered the prosecution to rewrite their indictment with each case of perjury as a separate count. That's it. He lied fourteen times (according to the prosecution) in the original as well as the superseding indictment. The new one is just laid out better.

The title of this article is extremely disingenuous; unless you read the whole thing, you would think that they hit Bonds with something new. A better title would have been "Feds rewrite indictment against Barry Bonds to cover their own stupidity".

[LittleSanityLeft]

Apparently there aren't enough black men in federal prison in America.

[Ammobob]

Always room for at least ONE more.....ask Wesley..........

[edgraham]

Forget about Bonds. His alleged lies didn't cause the deaths of a million Iraqis, and thousands of Americans.

Come on Barry, hit some home runs for the Orioles.

Ed Graham