Ex-Giants Trainer, Giambi Brothers Testify At Bonds Perjury Trial
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/AP) -- Former Oakland Athletic and current Colorado Rockies player Jason Giambi testified Tuesday that Barry Bonds' personal trainer first sent him steroids at the end of 2002.
Giambi and his brother Jeremy were the first athletes called to testify in the perjury trial of the former San Francisco Giants slugger. Giambi testified that he met trainer Greg Anderson after the 2002 season while both were traveling with a U.S. all-star team barnstorming through Japan.
When they returned to the states, Anderson had Giambi's blood tested and it turned up positive for a steroid that Major League Baseball was planning to test for during the 2003 season.
"Anderson told me that would trip a Major League Baseball test and that I should take something else," Giambi said.
Giambi said he paid Anderson a total of about $10,000 for several shipments of steroids known as "the clear" and "the cream" designed to evade detection starting in late 2002 and through the beginning of the 2003 baseball season. Syringes and a calendar detailing when he should take the substances were included in the first shipment, Giambi testified.
During cross examination, Bonds attorney Cris Arguedas read Giambi's 2003 grand jury testimony when he testified that Anderson had told him "the clear and the cream had steroid-like effects without being a steroid."
Giambi agreed with that testimony.
Giambi provided no direct testimony about Bonds. Instead, prosecutors hope to use his testimony—and that of other players— to show that Anderson was a well-known steroids dealer. Anderson is in jail for refusing to testify at the trial.
Earlier Tuesday, the former head trainer for the Giants told the jury that the home-run champion became significantly more muscular during the 1999 season.
Stan Conte, a physical therapist, worked for the Giants from 1993 to 2006, when he left to be head trainer for the L.A. Dodgers.
He was brought to the stand in the court of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco by prosecutors, who are trying to prove that Bonds lied when he told a grand jury in 2003 that he never knowingly took steroids.
Asked whether he detected changes in Bonds' appearance in 1999, Conte answered, "He got more muscular. His muscles got bigger, in my opinion."
The trainer also said Bonds gained an estimated 10 or 15 pounds that season and developed acne on his shoulders and back.
Prosecutors claim that all those symptoms are linked to steroid use.
KCBS' Margie Shafer reports:
Later Tuesday it was expected that Giambi's brother Jeremy Giambi would be among the other athletes called to testify.
Prosecutors have said in court papers that former players will also testify that Anderson gave them performance-enhancing drugs and explained what the drugs were and how to use them.
Bonds has admitted receiving substances from Anderson that were known as "the clear" and "the cream" that were later identified as designer steroids, but has claimed he did not know they were steroids.
Federal prosecutors also are expecting to briefly question two witnesses who will testify to the "chain of custody" of Bonds' Major League Baseball-mandated urine sample in 2003. Prosecutors allege that the sample tested positive for a designer steroid.
Other athletes who are on the government's witness list include several former teammates of Bonds: Armando Rios, Benito Santiago, Bobby Estalella and Marvin Benard.
In addition, another former Oakland Athletic, Randy Velarde, was scheduled to testify immediately after the Giambis. All the players except Jason Giambi, who is now ith the Colorado Rockies, have retired.
Gallery: Barry Bonds Through The Years
Bonds, who set MLB's record-holder for home runs in a career (762) and a season (73) while playing for the Giants, is accused of lying to a federal grand jury for testifying in 2003 that he never willfully used performance-enhancing drugs.
He faces a total of four counts of making false statements and one count of obstructing justice in his December 2003 grand jury testimony.
On Monday, former Bonds mistress Kimberly Bell spent much of the day on the witness stand, testifying that Bonds blamed a 1999 elbow injury on steroid use, and that the body and behavior of the home run king changed during their nine-year relationship.
She described being threatened by Bonds and said he claimed steroid use was widespread in baseball.
Bonds' defense team tried to portray Bell as a jilted girlfriend who was out for money and had reason to try and embarrass their client.
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