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SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge has ordered Barry Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, to court to disclose whether he intends to testify at the slugger's trial next month.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston scheduled a hearing for Wednesday morning and ordered the U.S. Marshals Service to tell Anderson and provide him with transportation, if needed.
The judge has barred prosecutors from using key evidence, such as positive steroids tests, at Bonds' March 2 trial unless Anderson testifies.
Anderson has said through his attorney he will refuse to testify, and he may be sent to prison on contempt of court charges.
Anderson was sent to prison after refusing to testify about Bonds before a federal grand jury in 2006.
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I have a couple issues with this whole Bonds situation. The first is this: Who cares? Proving perjury is difficult as it is...why are they so hellbent on putting Bonds in jail? What purpose do they intend for it to serve? Does ANYONE really think they are still acting in the interest of the people here? Or is it quite obvious to everyone (as it SHOULD be) that they have a vendetta against Bonds and/or are staking their reputation on their ability to prosecute them? They've gone past the point where they look like fools and are now, in my opinion, moving onto the point where they are performing a public disservice. At what point do they stop WASTING man-hours and public money just to put a guy in jail for using steroids? How bout we go back to putting REAL criminals in jail, rather than athletes just for the sake of proving a stupid point? And if I can expand beyond Bonds for a second, what purpose was served by putting Marion Jones in jail? What purpose was served by putting Michael Vick in jail? What purpose would be served by trying and subsequently putting Roger Clemens in jail? THIS is a priority? Really? I digress.
My other beef with this situation is this: How many times are they gonna put Greg Anderson in jail for this? Seriously. This is legal? How? Why is it legal to continually put a man in jail for not testifying on behalf of your case? Shouldnt there be SOME form of double jeopardy law that renders this illegal? At what point do we accuse the feds of acting in an unlawful manner? I thought legally you couldnt force someone to testify anyway. But I guess you can say he's in "contempt of court" and keep him in jail for months at a time. Lame.
Because of all this, I think the folks ATTEMPTING to prosecute Barry Bonds should be punched in the face. Preferably by Greg Anderson and his entire family.
2 comments:
I agree with 95% of what was said. I also agree that nothing is really being served by going after everyone that used steroids when they weren't banned my the MLB. I disagree about Vick. Whether or not I agree with his sentence his case is one that was built on the fact that he committed a felony (I actually re-comment on the higher standards post with this in mind), and has to live with the punishment.
The Bonds case however, and all the steroid cases, having another interesting element. HOW much testimony is going to be leaked, how many sealed transcripts are going to be reopened. It seems to me that the justice system loses credibility when they promise anonymity and turn around and releases everything that was said.
Thanks so much for this post, pretty worthwhile material.
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