Judge Bars Secret Recording From Jury In Bonds' Case
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS) -- Prosecutors in theBarry Bonds perjury trial were dealt yet another blow Tuesday when the judge overseeing the case ruled that jurors wouldn't get to hear a newly discovered tape recording of Bonds' orthopedic surgeon and his former business manager allegedly discussing the slugger and steroids.
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U.S. District Judge Susan Illston rejected a prosecution request to play the tape for the jury, saying that the recording was "barely intelligible" and "almost entirely inadmissible or irrelevant."
The 2003 conversation took place between between Dr. Arthur Ting and Steve Hoskins, who secretly recorded the chat. Hoskins earlier testified that he lost the tape shortly after recording it. But he said he found it in a rented storage unit on Sunday and turned it over to prosecutors late that night.
Prosecutors had hoped to use the 15-minute tape to win back some of the momentum they lost when Ting severely damaged Hoskins' credibility on the witness stand.
Ting last week flatly denied Hoskins' testimony that the pair had about 50 conversations about Bonds and steroids. Ting said the two never discussed that topic.
Transcripts of the tape released Tuesday by the prosecution indicated that Hoskins brought up newspaper articles about the federal raid on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO), and the possible implications for Bonds. Ting replied with mostly short answers to Hoskins' statements.
While much of the recording was inaudible, prosecutors claimed there was enough on the tape to undercut Ting's testimony that he never had a conversation with Hoskins about Bonds and steroids.
But Illston disagreed: "Mostly, I could hear Mr. Hoskins. I could hear very little of what Dr. Ting said."
Illston also said that the contents of the tape were not very substantive since "almost all of this is people's comments being driven by what is said to be newspaper articles and news reports."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella had maintained that the government wanted to use the tape to establish a conversation about steroids happened, "not the accuracy of the statements within it."
"This will never come into evidence," predicted Bonds' lead lawyer, Allen Ruby, prior to the judge issuing her ruling.
Bonds, baseball's season and career home run leader, is charged with four counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice for telling a grand jury investigating BALCO in 2003 that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs and received injections only from physicians.
Before clashing with the judge and defense lawyers over the audiotape, prosecutors began day 10 of the trial - now in its third week - trying to close the loop on the slugger's 2003 urine sample that tested positive for steroids.
Prosecutors on Tuesday morning called three chemists from the University of California Los Angeles Olympic Analytical Laboratory to discuss how they handled and tested the sample.
Bonds provided the sample in 2003 as part of Major League Baseball's initial steroids testing program. Federal investigators seized the sample in 2004 and had the UCLA lab test it in 2006.
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The former head of the lab, Dr. Don Catlin, told the jury that the sample showed the presence of THG. The scientific name for the substance is tetrahydrogestrinone. It has also been called "the clear."
Bonds admitted to the grand jury in 2003 that he had taken "the clear," but said he thought it was flaxseed oil and did not know it was a steroid.
Catlin also told the jury that the 2006 test detected the presence of clomiphene, a non-steroid chemical that is used as a fertility drug for women. Another expert testified earlier in the trial that it is sometimes employed by male athletes to restore the natural production of testosterone after they have taken steroids.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
Catlin's testimony brought the prosecution side of the case close to an end, as the final piece of prosecution evidence was a reading of portions of Bonds' 2003 grand jury testimony.
After the grand jury transcript was finished, Parrella told the judge "at this point, the government rests."
Defense attorneys have not yet said how many witnesses they planned to call when the trial resumes on Wednesday.
Lawyers for Bonds told the judge that it was possible they could call him to testify in his own defense. Other witnesses the defense was considering are Harvey Shields, Bonds' stretching trainer; and Laura Enos, who worked as a business lawyer for Bonds.
"Whether we'll call all or none of those people is something we'll
decide tonight," Ruby said.
Ruby did indicate that the defense would present brief testimony by an FBI agent and a U.S. Internal Revenue Service agent who worked on the Bonds case.
The defense also filed motions late Tuesday afternoon after the prosecution completed its case that included a request for a directed verdict of acquittal as well as three motions to strike various portions of previously presented prosecution evidence.
The judge was considering those requests.
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