Barry Bonds Indicted for Perjury and Obstruction of Justice
Nov 19th, 2007 • Posted in: NewsSAN FRANCISCO
In a development that capped a series of sports scandals through this summer and fall, former San Francisco Giants star and all-time Major League Baseball home-run leader Barry Bonds last week was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Bonds was charged with making false statements to a grand jury that investigated the BALCO laboratory, which was implicated in the distribution of steroids.
Allegations that Bonds took performance-enhancing drugs have dogged him for years, though he has never been formally charged with any related offense until last week.
Bonds testified in 2003 that he never knowingly used steroids, saying that he may have been unwittingly exposed to the substances when his personal trainer supplied him with a cream Bonds said he thought was an arthritis balm and a clear liquid he believed was flaxseed oil, reports Sports Illustrated.
If convicted, Bonds could face up to 30 years in prison, though legal analysts interviewed by ABC News said that a sentence ranging from several months to a couple of years would be more likely.
While most of the details in the case are familiar to sports fans, there was one surprise, reports sports network ESPN: The indictment maintains that Bonds tested positive for steroids and concealed the results of the test. If that proves true, the existence of evidence scientifically connected to Bonds via DNA and other means will be difficult for the defense to reconcile.
Bonds, who is perhaps one of the most hated players in the history of baseball, slugged his way into the record books in September by breaking Henry Aaron’s home-run record. The man who bought Bonds’s record-breaking ball held an online public poll, with the majority voting to have the ball branded with an asterisk before being given to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Other sports icons who fell from grace after recent ethics scandals include Olympic gold-medal sprinter Marion Jones, who admitted steroid use and now may not only forfeit her medals but have the gold-medal spots she won at the 2000 Olympics left vacant in the official record books, according to the Associated Press.
Also tarred were Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, who is awaiting sentencing for his involvement in a dog-fighting ring, and Floyd Landis, who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for a banned substance, a finding he continues to dispute.
In recent months professional basketball also was embroiled in a scandal involving a referee who admitted he bet on games and passed information along to gamblers.
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