In Bonds Case, Lengthy Wait Has Raised Costs for Plaintiff and Prosecutors

[madinmaryland]

When Barry Bonds walked into San Francisco’s federal courthouse on Dec. 4, 2003, Buster Posey, the hero of the Giants’ 2010 world championship, was 16.

Mr. Bonds, who was still an active player, wore a gray suit that morning. He was to testify before a grand jury investigating his personal weight trainer and his nutritionist, who were suspected of dispensing illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

“Did you take steroids?” the federal prosecutor, Jeff Nedrow, asked Mr. Bonds, according to testimony later leaked to The San Francisco Chronicle. “No,” Mr. Bonds replied.

The federal government’s contention that Mr. Bonds perjured himself effectively turns on that exchange. Mr. Bonds’s trial begins March 21, in the same courthouse where the case that became known as Balco — for the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative at the center of the investigation — has been playing out for nearly a decade.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/11/us/11bcbonds.html?src=recg

[Upton]

1. Witchhunts can get expensive....

“It’s a questionable use of resources, especially at a time when the budget is being cut, hiring is frozen and fraudsters are running amok,” said Richard Cutler, a former federal prosecutor who now works in Mountain View for the law firm Dechert L.L.P. “To have two or three attorneys, investigators and paralegals working full time on a perjury case against a baseball player raises questions about the prioritizing of prosecutions.”

[joeybee12]

2. So can legitimate trials when the obviously guilty defendant has a lot of cash

to make it drag out.

[Upton]

3. What would you have Bonds do...not defend himself?

Perhaps he should just throw up his hands and say, "I'm guilty massa prosecuter, please punish me"..

Bonds has been made the poster boy for all that was wrong in the steroid era by an oppressive government prosecution. Even the judge has been angered by their tactics.....

If Bonds had not broken all sorts of records this prosecution wouldn't even be taking place..

[joeybee12]

4. Pfffffffffffttttttttt!

Yeah, and if he hadn't broken all those records...he did, because he cheated.

Oh yeah, maybe if he hadn't knowingly lied in the first place, then there wouldn't be a trial and he wouldn't have to defend himself.

Nice argument, cboy.

[Upton]

5. Oh, I almost forgot..

:rofl:

[trumad]

6. Your typical diversion of a smackdown....change the subject.

Upton/Cboy continuing to defend their hero to the end.

douche

[Auggie]

7. Yep, the perjury and/or obstruction of justice charges

can carry more severe consequences than just telling the truth.

[Iggo]

8. But he actually is a witch.

Okay we did the nose...