San Francisco Giants’ Barry Bonds ordered to file new plea by Court – MLB News
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston has ordered San Francisco Giants’ former slugger Barry Bonds to file a new plea next month for the third time since he was charged in 2007 for supposedly lying in front of a federal grand jury regarding steroid use.
With the trial approaching on March 21 the judge also ordered former trainer to Bonds, Greg Anderson to appear in front of the jury on March 1.
The judge has indicated to Anderson that he may be remanded to jail if he does not keep to his word that was discussed earlier. However his attorneys have mentioned that Anderson will not testify during Bonds trial.
Bonds’ lawyers are trying to keep an audio recording between Anderson and Bonds’ former business partner Steve Hoskins out of the proceedings. Supposedly this recording was made back in 2003.
It seems that this whole issue of Bonds and steroids has gotten out of hand as the court is under the impression that he lied in front of the federal grand jury, which is in itself a very serious charge. Bonds has never admitted to using steroids during
his professional baseball career. However this entire issue is not about steroid use, it is about lying about the use of steroids in front of the federal grand jury.
With the amount of legal coverage and lawyers involved in the case, there is a good chance that Bonds will not be charged and only be given some sort of reprimand. This whole episode of steroids in baseball is starting to take a toll on Major League Baseball,
as doubts have begun to creep into the sport regarding the performance of many of the top players. The interesting fact is that some top name players have admitted using steroids in the past and have apologised to the fans and the League. This method seems
to have worked for some of the top players as the issue just loses steam and life seems to go on in MLB.
As the case lingers on and is constantly in the media spotlight, MLB is going to be doing some damage control to clean up their act and get out from this whole steroids issue.
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