Estranged Friend Portrayed As Revenge-Seeker At Bonds Trial
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / KCBS) -- Barry Bonds' estranged childhood friend underwent more cross examination Thursday as the slugger's attorney attempted to portray Steve Hoskins as a revenge-seeker who was bitter from a messy business divorce.
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Hoskins testified that he loaned former Bonds mistress Kimberly Bell $10,000 to hire an attorney after her own bitter split with Bonds in 2003.
Bell, like Hoskins, is a vital government witness because she planned to testify that Bonds told her of his steroid use.
Hoskins has testified that he strongly suspected Bonds was using steroids between 1999 and 2003. Hoskins on Thursday testified that Bonds' surgeon, Dr. Arthur Ting, told him that a Bonds elbow injury was caused by steroid use. Ting advised him to tell Bonds to stop using them, Hoskins testified.
KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:
On Wednesday, jurors in Bonds' federal perjury trial heard a tape recording made by Hoskins that prosecutors said shows Bonds' trainer discussing injections of the baseball star as well as undetectable steroids.
The conversation between Greg Anderson, Bonds' trainer, and Hoskins, Bonds' former personal assistant, was secretly recorded in the San Francisco Giants clubhouse in 2003.
Hoskins and Bonds grew up together in San Mateo County; Hoskins also worked for Bonds from 1993 until late March 2003 when Bonds had Hoskins sign a document effectively ending what was a lucrative business arrangement for Hoskins.
Hoskins under cross-examination denied accusations that he planned to extort Bonds in the aftermath of that split by making the secret recording. Hoskins calimed he made it to convince Bonds' father, Bobby Bonds, that his son was juicing.
But he conceded that he was incorrect in insisting his secretly recorded conversation with trainer Anderson occurred in late March 2003. Under cross examination, Hoskins conceded the recording was made later. The defesne suggested that was an important inconsistency because that means the recording was made after Bonds had Hoskins sign the document on March 27, 2003, ending their business arrangement.
Nonetheless, Hoskins denied he had any malicious intentions and said he harbored no ill will toward Bonds at the time of the recording or now.
The tape and Hoskins' testimony have become important prosecution evidence in the trial because Anderson has refused to testify.
Anderson was found in contempt of court by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston on Tuesday and jailed for the duration of the trial, which began this week, for his refusal to take the stand.
Bonds, 46, is not on trial for taking steroids, but rather is accused of lying to a federal grand jury in December 2003 when he denied having knowingly received steroids, other performance-enhancing drugs or any kind of injection from Anderson.
The panel was investigating sports drugs sales by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO.
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After Hoskins, the next prosecution witnesses on Thursday was one of the world's foremost steroids experts; he told jurors that the designer drugs allegedly used by Bonds dubbed "the clear" and "the cream" were "pretty cleverly designed" to avoid detection and "basically
fool the laboratory."
Bonds has admitted using the steroids, but said Anderson misled him into believing the drugs were flaxseed oil and an arthritis cream.
Prosecutors are seeking to use a variety of evidence in the four-week trial, including testimony from other athletes who received the drugs from Anderson, to try to prove that Bonds did know what the substances were.
Dr. Larry Bowers, a chemist who is the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's chief scientist, recounted for the jury how authorities unmasked the designer steroids.
Bowers said that in his 35 years in the field of drug monitoring, "We were always concerned about designer steroids, a compound specifically made to avoid detection."
After anonymously being sent a syringe of one of the performance-enhancing drugs, he said scientists using highly technical chemical-detection equipment developed a urine test for it. The test was put in place by the agency in late 2003, although the drugs were not specifically listed as federally controlled substances until 2005.
Bowers also testified about the side effects of steroids, such an acne breakout and "bloating."
The government planned to use that testimony to support the expected testimony of Bonds' former mistress. Bell was expected to testify later in the trial that she witnessed physical and mental changes in Bonds that prosecutors allege were side effects of steroid use.
With an eye on the forthcoming testimony by Bell, federal prosecutor Jeff Nedrow asked Bowers what effect steroid abuse could have on testicles.
"They would shrink," Bowers said.
In court papers filed before the trial started, prosecutors said Bell was planning to tell the jury that Bonds' testicles shrank during their nine-year relationship.
Bowers also testified that scientific studies have suggested an excess of human growth hormone could cause an adult's head, hands and feet to grow. Prosecutors said future witnesses would testify that Bonds' head, hands and feet grew during his time with the Giants.
Out of the presence of the jury, Judge Illston denied Bonds attorney Allen Ruby's motion to exclude such evidence. Ruby argued unsuccessfully that Bowers failed to offer enough scientific evidence that growth hormone could enlarge a user's head, hands and feet.
Bonds hit Major League Baseball's single-season record of 73 home runs in 2001 and the all-time career record of 762 in his last season with the Giants in 2007.
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He is the last of 11 defendants who were charged with either lying or distributing performance-enhancing drugs in connection with the BALCO probe. The others, including chemist Patrick Arnold, who designed "the clear," all pleaded guilty or were convicted of various charges.
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