Bonds' Surgeon Undercuts Government's Perjury Case
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Prosecutors called Barry Bonds' orthopedic surgeon to the witness stand Thursday at the home-run slugger's perjury trial -- but they may regret it and wish they hadn't.
Dr. Arthur Ting contradicted the testimony of key prosecution witness Steve Hoskins, Bonds' former business partner and personal assistant.
Ting denied speaking about Bonds and performance-enhancing drugs with Hoskins, and also denied telling Hoskins that Bonds' serious elbow injury in 1999 was caused by steroid use.
KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:
Hoskins had testified earlier in the trial that he had as many as 50 conversations with Ting about his concerns that Bonds' health was in jeopardy because of steroid use.
Ting also testified that he gave Bonds legal steroids to ease swelling after surgery. Ting said those type of steroids have similar side effects as performance-enhancing steroids - acne, weight gain, mood swings and loss of libido.
Ting testified that he had operated on Bonds eight times, the last time in 2009.
Later, during a break outside the presence of the jury, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedrow acknowleged to U.S. District Judge Susan Illston that there were "inconsistencies" between the testimony of Ting and Hoskins, who the prosecutor also conceded had been "impeached heavily."
Nedrow made the concession while defending the government's handling of the case. Bonds' attorney Cristina Arguedas complained to the judge that the government should have disclosed Ting's testimony before the trial, but Nedrow said that Thursday was the first time he heard Ting contradict Hoskins so heavily.
Prosecutors were relying on the Hoskins' testimony to help convince the jury that Bonds knowingly used steroids.
Also Thursday, Steve Hoskins' sister - Kathy Hoskins - told jurors that she saw Bonds' private trainer, Greg Anderson, inject him in the navel before a road trip during the 2002 season.
"Greg shot him in the belly button, just like a doctor," said Kathy Hoskins, who was the former personal shopper for Bonds.
The two Hoskins and Bonds grew up together and the siblings went to work for him when he signed with the San Francisco Giants before the 1993 season.
>> Photo Gallery: Barry Bonds Through The Years
Bonds is on trial in federal court in San Francisco on charges of lying in 2003 to a grand jury that was investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.
One of the false statements the the seven-time NL MVP and MLB home-run champion is accused of making is a statement that he never received any injection from Anderson or anyone else other than a doctor. Bonds also is accused of lying when he said that he never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
Hoskins, who said she is sometimes called Katy, said she saw the injection when she was in the bedroom of Bonds' house packing his clothes for a Giants road trip in 2002.
She said she had previously seen Anderson and Bonds disappear briefly into a nearby office on 10 or 15 occasions.
This time, Hoskins said, Bonds told Anderson to "do it right here" in the bedroom where she was packing. When Anderson expressed concerns about her presence, Bonds allegedly responded: "This is Katy; she's my girl."
Hoskins testified that she then watched Anderson inject Bonds. She said didn't ask about the injection, but Bonds volunteered that it was "a little something, something for when I go on the road. You can't detect it."
Prosecutors have only one more witness to call, a sports-doping expert, before the defense begins presenting its case.
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