Felger & Mazz: Richard Justice 'Our Government Screwed This Thing Up'
With Felger out of studio for the week, Massarotti was joined today by Marc Bertrand, discussing the shocking news that Roger Clemens' perjury trial has been dismissed and deemed a "mistrial" by Judge Walton.
The tandem welcomed esteemed writer for the Houston Chronicle, Richard Justice, to comment on the various issues surrounding the controversy. Mazz opened up the segment by asking the question outright: how did the government screw up so badly?
Justice indicated that it was either "arrogance or oversight" on the part of the federal government and pointed out that the prosecution's mention of former Yankees Chuck Knoblauch and Andy Pettitte really upset Judge Walton who had strongly asserted that former players were not going to be able to testify against Clemens.
As to why the trial was finally dismissed in the end, Justice stated that the prosecution's continued use of Laura Pettitte testimony from a few years back which had not been cleared as evidence. The judge, according to Justice, did however entertain the possibility that the trial could be retried after 10 days.
Mazz then put forth a question to Justice as to the likelihood that there is a retrial, something ESPN legal experts said was more than a 50-50 proposition toward a NO. Justice did say that he thinks "there is a chance of that," although it would not surprise him either way.
Justice told the guys that the prosecution "was crushed today" by the judge's decision and further said that "it was a bad day" for the government. Bertrand asked Justice whether Clemens, who did not speak with the media today, would talk tomorrow or in the future. Justice indicated that the answer is no because Judge Walton put a gag order on parties involved in the case.
Mazz finally got to the crux of the issue with Clemens and asked Justice right out if he thought Clemens lied to Congress. Justice just said he thought Clemens definitely took steroids but opted not to answer the question at hand.
