Kallas Remarks: Barry Bonds Case Goes To The Jury
By Steve Kallas
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The jury in the Barry Bonds trial will now decide his fate after both sides made their closing arguments in a federal courtroom in San Francisco, California. The jury will start their deliberations this morning (Friday, April 8th).
POSSIBLE SPLIT-DECISION
The government "voluntarily" withdrew one of the perjury counts of the five-count indictment, so the jury will be considering four felony counts: three for perjury and one for obstruction of justice. It says here that the jury will probably convict Barry Bonds on Count II of the indictment, the one where, when Bonds was asked during the BALCO grand jury whether anyone other than Dr. Ting had ever injected him, he responded "No."
That simple response will probably result in a felony conviction for perjury based on the testimony of Kathy Hoskins, Bonds' personal shopper, who stated that she saw Greg Anderson inject Barry Bonds "in the belly button" one day right before Bonds went on a road trip with the Giants. Since the defense called no witnesses and, according to multiple reports from the courtroom, the defense didn't do much to damage Kathy Hoskins' credibility, this might be the easiest count to render a verdict on for the jury. The government also introduced as evidence three syringes and a bottle of HGH that was taken from Greg Anderson's (Bonds' former trainer who refused to testify) apartment by the government.
This would seem to give a jury much room to convict on Count II.
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER THREE COUNTS?
Well, those are a much closer call for the jury. The testimony of Steve Hoskins, portrayed by the defense as an embittered ex-employee of Bonds, was greatly undercut by the government's own witness, Dr. Arthur Ting, who testified that he never spoke to Hoskins about Bonds and his alleged steroid use.
Dr. Ting, who performed eight operations on Barry Bonds, also damaged the testimony of Bonds' mistress Kimberly Bell, when Ting testified that he gave Barry Bonds legal steroids on a number of instances post-operation, and that these legal steroids could have the same effects on Barry Bonds (acne, hair loss, shrinkage of testicles, etc.) to which Ms. Bell testified earlier in the trial.
CONCLUSION
While putting no witnesses on the stand in the defense case of Barry Bonds, the defense is simply saying that the prosecution did not prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt. By doing so, however, in this writer's opinion, they have left the door open to at least a conviction on the Count II perjury charge because of the strength of the testimony of Kathy Hoskins. While there is evidence to support a conviction on the other three counts, those are a much closer call.
It says here that there will be a conviction on one count and maybe more.
And then, hopefully, everyone can go back to watching and playing baseball.
That is, of course, until the Roger Clemens trial starts later this summer.
Your thoughts on the trial? Let us know in the comments below...
