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In 1913, the government hid behind the Mann Act to prosecute a powerful, prominent black man it felt needed to be taught a lesson. Now the government has invested eight years and millions of dollars to go after another prominent, powerful black man with a vigor that suggests there is more in play than the altruistic goal of protecting the integrity of a grand jury.

The prosecution, regardless of the verdict, was a colossal misuse of time and money aimed, it seems, at making an example of a larger-than-life figure whose greatest sin was being an unlikable home run king.

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Marion Jones joins Roland Martin for the taping of Washington Watch on the Tom Joyner Fantastic Voyage 2001 to discuss her new book, “On the Right Track” and how she has turned her life around.

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Stan Conte, who is now the Los Angeles Dodgers head trainer, told the jury that Bonds viewed him and the medical department as “spies” for the owners.

Conte said he suggested to general manager Brian Sabean and manager Dusty Baker at spring training in 2000 that Bonds’ trainers, Greg Anderson and Harvey Shields, should be barred from the Giants training room and clubhouse.

Conte said that Sabean told Conte to evict the trainers himself. Conte testified that Sabean remained silent when he asked the general manager to back him if Bonds complained. Conte testified that he understood from Sabean’s silence that he didn’t have the general manager’s backing and he dropped the subject.

Conte also testified that he noticed Bonds had bulked up before the 2000 season and noticed acne on the slugger’s back, which prosecutors allege is a side effect of steroid use.

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Before Conte’s testimony, two witnesses discussed the urine samples Bonds provided during the 2003 season. Prosecutors allege those samples tested positive for the designer steroid THG.

The two witnesses, Barry Sample, chief science officer of Quest Diagnostics, the company that analyzed Bonds’ urine, and Dale Kennedy, who collected the sample, were necessary to establish that Bonds’ samples were handled properly and can be used as evidence.

Bonds, the major league record-holder for home runs in a career (762) and a season (73), has pleaded not guilty to four charges that he lied to a grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance-enhancing drugs. He also pleaded not guilty to a charge of obstruction.

Tuesday morning’s testimony was far less dramatic than the testimony of Bonds’ former mistress Monday. Kimberly Bell testified that Bonds told her he used steroids and became verbally abusive toward her at the end of their nine-year relationship.

She also testified that Bonds’ testicles shrank during their relationship. Prosecutors allege that testicle shrinkage is a side effect of steroid use.

That testimony came under fire outside the presence of the jury Tuesday.

At issue is a concession Bell made on the witness stand Monday. Bell testified that she exaggerated when she told a grand jury that Bonds’ testicles shrank by half late in their nine-year relationship.

She said Monday that Bonds’ testicles shrank and changed shape, but not as dramatically as portrayed before the grand jury.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston said Tuesday she was “struck by” Bell’s concession. The judge was reviewing transcripts of Bell’s grand jury testimony. One remedy under consideration is for the judge to tell the jury to disregard Bell’s testimony regarding Bonds’ testicles.

The judge didn’t indicate when she would rule on the matter.

Former AL MVP Jason Giambi and his brother, Jeremy Giambi, are expected to testify later Tuesday. The brothers have both admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs they obtained from Anderson.

Prosecutors hope to use the players’ testimony to bolster their position that Bonds knowingly used steroids obtained from Anderson.

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Along with the swearing in of the jury and opening statements, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston is expected to send the jurors out of the courtroom Tuesday so she can send Bonds’ former personal trainer Greg Anderson to jail.

Illston told Anderson on March 1 that she plans to have him kept in custody for the length of the trial if he follows through as expected on his vow of silence. Anderson’s attorney, Mark Geragos, said he will argue that Anderson can’t be jailed on contempt charges because he already served a little more than a year on similar charges after refusing to testify before a grand jury investigating Bonds.

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After she dispenses with Anderson, the jury will be seated and instructed on how to consider evidence during the two-to-four week trial. They will also be admonished from discussing the case outside of court.

Bonds, the all-time leader in home runs (762) and homers in a season (73), is facing four counts of lying to a grand jury and one of obstruction for testifying that he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted in 2007, weeks after he played his last game.

Bonds’ legal team has asked the judge to specifically order jurors to refrain from discussing the case on Twitter, Facebook, or through instant messaging and other popular communication tools.

Several cases nationwide have been derailed by mistrials or appellate reversals after jurors were discovered discussing ongoing trials on social network sites.

“In a high profile case such as this, we believe that in this era of ready access to the Internet and social networks it is of paramount importance to impress upon jurors in clear, direct and plain English the requirement that they comply with the Court’s prohibitions against independent research and/or disclosure from the very outset,” Bonds attorney Cris Arguedas wrote in making the request to the judge March 2.

The judge hasn’t indicated whether she will deliver that specific instruction.

Dressed in a dark suit and silver tie, the 46-year-old Bonds spent most of Monday speaking quietly with his attorneys and looking at prospective jurors as they underwent questioning.

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SAN FRANCISCO — Major League Baseball’s home-run king Barry Bonds begins his perjury trial today, eight years after testifying to a grand jury that he never knowingly took steroids or human growth hormone.

NBC reports:

The actual trial may not start for a week, but Monday the lawyers in the case will begin jury selection. Bonds is expected to be at the courthouse for the selection process.

On Monday, about 50 perspective jurors are expected to take questions from lawyers from both sides of the case. The jurors have already filled out a questionnaire, which will answer many of the issues the lawyers are interested in.

Bonds, who hit is 762nd home run in 2007, is not alone. Starting July 6, seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens also faces accusations of steroid use, and goes on trial in Washington on charges of perjury, and obstruction of Congress.

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Law enforcement steroid use is a problem around the country and, given that steroid use can cause aggression, can invite problems for police, said Larry Gaines, chairman of the Department of Criminal Justice at California State University in San Bernadino, California.

“Aggression is not very common but nonetheless it’s a possible problem,” Gaines said. “If it does occur, you could see lawsuits against police departments regarding citizens injured from steroid rage.”

The New Jersey measures come in response to reports last month of a local doctor who illegally supplied hundreds of police and firefighters with anabolic steroids, human growth hormones and other muscle-building drugs.

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Hank Aaron wants to shine some more light on baseball’s steroid era. The former home run king favors releasing the full list of players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

In a wide-ranging interview Tuesday night with The Associated Press, the Hall of Famer said releasing the list would help Major League Baseball get past its drug stigma. The list was supposed to remain anonymous and is now under court seal, but big names have continued to leak out.

“I wish for once and forever that we could come out and say we have 100 and some names, name them all and get it over and let baseball go on,” Aaron said. “I don’t know how they keep leaking out. I just wish that they would name them all and get it over with.”

Aaron also wanted to make a few other things clear.

No, he has not spoken with commissioner Bud Selig about banned Pete Rose being reinstated in baseball. But he does think it’s time Rose, the career hits leader, be reinstated and voted into the Hall of Fame.

Rose agreed to a lifetime ban from baseball in 1989 after an investigation concluded he bet on the Cincinnati Reds to win while he was manager of the team.

“How long does a person have to die?” Aaron said. “I think the thing that bothers me is that he is missing out on a lot of things. He made a mistake. I don’t know what else can be done, or what else can be said. I just think at some point he needs to start enjoying being a Hall of Famer.”

Aaron spoke to the AP before a banquet for the 17th Annual RBI World Series. The program is designed to increase participation and interest in baseball for youths and minorities — one of the primary issues Aaron is working on.

With the number of blacks in the majors dwindling in the past few decades, Aaron said MLB — and everyone — could do more to curb the numbers.

“You always think that a program needs to do more, no question about it, if you have the funds,” Aaron said. “We all need to do more. I think we all need to do more to help.”

However, since steroids have come become one of baseball’s biggest problems, the thought that the game is still tainted doesn’t sit well with Aaron, who held the home run record with 755 until Barry Bonds broke it.

Neither does the fact that some of baseball’s biggest names — including a New York Times report last week that identified Boston slugger David Ortiz and former teammate Manny Ramirez — continue to pop up on what has simply become known as “the list.”

There were no penalties for a positive test in 2003 — the anonymous tests were conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004. But federal agents seized the results as part of the BALCO investigation. The players’ union has argued the search was illegal, and the case is currently before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

At the event in Palm Beach Gardens on Tuesday night, Aaron said he often delivers a message to kids about getting involved in baseball but also about staying out of trouble. He thought the same message could apply to some major leaguers.

“I tell them you may not be able to hit 700 home runs, but you need to do the right things,” Aaron said. “There’s no shortcuts in life. Everything is going to catch up.”

From The New York Times

David Ortiz, right, and Manny Ramirez propelled the Boston Red Sox to two World Series titles. Both tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

Some of baseball’s most cherished storylines of the past decade have been tainted by performance-enhancing drugs, including the accomplishments of record-setting home run hitters and dominating pitchers. Now, players with Boston’s championship teams of 2004 and 2007 have also been linked to doping.

A-Rod Admits Using Steroids

Barry Bonds Pleads Not Guilty In Steroid Case

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From Yahoo Sports

A source close to Manny Ramirez(notes) said Thursday that the illegal substance for which the Los Angeles Dodgers slugger tested positive was not “an agent customarily used for performance enhancing.”

At least not on the baseball diamond. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was prescribed to address Ramirez’s erectile dysfunction.

However, two sources said the substance Ramirez tested positive for a gonadotropin. Major League baseball’s list of banned substances includes the gonadotropins LH and HCG, which are most commonly used by women as fertility drugs. They also can be used to trigger testosterone production. Testosterone is depleted by steroid use, and low testosterone can cause erectile dysfunction.

“Testosterone and similar drugs are effective for erectile dysfunction in that they jazz up your sex drive,” said Charles Yesalis, a professor at Penn State who has testified before Congress on issues of performance-enhancing drugs. “But far more clinicians accept that affect with Viagra and Cialis. It’s hard for me to understand if it was erectile dysfunction why they would use it.”

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Alex Rodriguez just finished his press conference.

The New York Yankees star third baseman said using the banned drug that he said he obtained from the Dominican Republic was a “stupid mistake.”

“I knew we weren’t taking Tic Tacs,” Rodriguez said.

The third baseman said a cousin of his injected him with a banned substance in 2001, 2002 and 2003. He said his decision to use what he called an “energy boosting” drug was purely ignorant..

“We consulted no one. It was pretty evident that we didn’t know what we were doing,” Rodriguez said.

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Alex Rodriguez admitted Monday that he used performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-03 when he played for the Texas Rangers.

“Back then it was a different culture. It was very loose. I was young. I was stupid,” the New York Yankees star said in an interview with ESPN. “I was naive, and I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth, you know _ and being one of the greatest players of all time.

His admission came two days after Sports Illustrated reported he tested positive for steroids in 2003, one of 104 players who tested positive during baseball’s survey testing, which wasn’t subject to discipline.

“It was such a loosey-goosey era. I’m guilty for a lot of things. I’m guilty for being negligent, naive, not asking all the right questions,” Rodriguez said. “To be quite honest, I don’t know exactly what substance I was guilty of using.”

SI.com reported he tested positive for Primobolan and testosterone.

“And I did take a banned substance and, you know, for that I’m very sorry and deeply regretful. And although it was the culture back then and Major League Baseball overall was very  I just feel that  You know, I’m just sorry. I’m sorry for that time. I’m sorry to fans. I’m sorry for my fans in Texas. It wasn’t until then that I ever thought about substance of any kind, and since then I’ve proved to myself and to everyone that I don’t need any of that.”

Rodriguez directly contradicted a December 2007 interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes,” when he said, “No” when asked whether he’s ever used steroids, human growth hormone or any other performance-enhancing substance.

“I’ve never felt overmatched on the baseball field,” he said then. “I felt that if I did my, my work as I’ve done since I was, you know, a rookie back in Seattle, I didn’t have a problem competing at any level.”

“In 2003, when he won the American League home run title and the AL Most Valuable Player award as a shortstop for the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez tested positive for two anabolic steroids, four sources have independently told Sports Illustrated.

Rodriguez’s name appears on a list of 104 players who tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball’s ’03 survey testing, SI’s sources say. As part of a joint agreement with the MLB Players Association, the testing was conducted to determine if it was necessary to impose mandatory random drug testing across the major leagues in 2004.”

Those tests were supposed to be anonymous, but that list of 104 names was seized by federal agents in 2004 as part of the BALCO investigation that has focused on, among other people, Barry Bonds.

There were no penalties for steroid use in baseball back in 2003 and it is unlikely that there will be any disciplinary action against Rodriguez.

But it’s noteworthy that from the moment Barry Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s all-time homerun record in the summer of 2007, much of the baseball public has been eagerly anticipating the day when a “clean” ballplayer would wrest baseball’s most cherished record away from the tainted Bonds. That player would surely have been Arod. Only 33 years old, Arod has already hit 553 career homeruns, good for twelfth all time. Assuming he stays healthy, he is very likely to shatter Bonds’ career record of 762 in the next five or six seasons.

Now, however, Arod is likely tainted too. Though he’s not well-liked, Arod will not be vilified to the degree that Bonds has. But he can no longer “save” baseball’s Mount Olympus from the man that baseball fans and media have always loved to hate.

Court documents show Barry Bonds tested positive for three types of steroids, and his personal trainer once told his business manager in the Giants’ clubhouse how he injected the slugger with performance-enhancing drugs “all over the place.”

Prosecutors plan to use those positive test results and other evidence, detailed in documents released Wednesday, at Bonds’ trial next month to try to prove he lied when he told a federal grand jury in December 2003 that he never knowingly used steroids.

The release of documents by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston set the stage for a hearing Thursday to decide what evidence to allow jurors to hear.

Hundreds of pages of documents show how the prosecution intends to prove its case without the cooperation of Bonds’ personal trainer Greg Anderson, whose previous refusals to testify resulted in a yearlong prison stint for contempt. And his lawyer, Mark Geragos, said Anderson again will refuse to discuss Bonds if prosecutors call him to testify.

Also among the evidence made public were a positive test for amphetamines in 2006 in a urine sample Bonds gave to Major League Baseball; doping calendars Anderson maintained with the initials “BB” and a handwritten note seized from his house labeled “Barry” that appears to be a laundry list of steroids and planned blood tests; and a list of current and former major leaguers, including Jason Giambi, who are expected to testify at the March 2 trial.

While jurors may not hear Anderson testify about Bonds, prosecutors want jurors to hear the personal trainer’s voice on a recording made by Bonds’ former personal assistant Steve Hoskins in March 2003.

The documents said Hoskins, Bonds’ childhood friend, secretly tape-recorded a 2003 conversation with Anderson in the Giants’ clubhouse because Hoskins wanted to prove to Bonds’ father, Bobby Bonds, that his son was using steroids.
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Anderson and Hoskins, who were near Bonds’ locker, were discussing steroid injections, and at one point, they lowered their voices to avoid being overheard as players, including Benito Santiago, and others walked by, according to the documents.

Anderson: “No, what happens is, they put too much in one area, and … actually ball up and puddle. And what happens is, it actually will eat away and make an indentation. And it’s a cyst. It makes a big (expletive) cyst. And you have to drain it. Oh yeah, it’s gnarly. … Hi Benito. … Oh it’s gnarly.”

Hoskins: “… Is that why Barry’s didn’t do it in one spot, and you didn’t just let him do it one time?”

Anderson: “Oh no. I never. I never just go there. I move it all over the place.”

Also during that conversation, Anderson told Hoskins that “everything that I’ve been doing at this point, it’s all undetectable,” according to the documents.

“See, the stuff that I have … we created it,” he was quoted as saying. “And you can’t, you can’t buy it anywhere. You can’t get it anywhere else.”

He added that he was unconcerned about Bonds testing positive because Marion Jones and other athletes using the same drugs had not been caught doping.

“So that’s why I know it works. So that’s why I’m not even trippin’. So that’s cool,” Anderson said, according to the transcript.

The San Francisco Chronicle first reported about a tape recording involving Anderson on Oct. 16, 2004, but did not identify the person he was speaking to.

Bonds attorneys argued that none of Anderson’s statements outside of court should be admissible.

“If Anderson does not testify for the government, the truth of any statement he may (or may not) have made out of court cannot be so tested,” lead Bonds attorney Allen Ruby wrote. “Mr. Bonds will be stripped of the opportunity to confront and cross-examine the most prejudicial but least reliable evidence against him.”

Bonds and Hoskins had a nasty falling out after the slugger went to the FBI with accusations Hoskins stole from him.

Three of Bonds’ test results were seized in a 2003 raid on the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the headquarters of a massive sports doping ring shut down by federal agents. Agents said they seized numerous results of blood and urine tests by Bonds, which prosecutors argue show that the slugger was intimately involved with BALCO.

Bonds’ lawyers moved to suppress 24 drug tests from 2000-06; more than two dozen drug calendars; BALCO log sheets; handwritten notes; opinion evidence on steroids, human growth hormone, THG, EPO and Clomid; witness descriptions of Bonds’ “physical, behavioral and emotional characteristics” _ including acne on his back, testicle shrinkage, head size, hat size, hand size, foot size and sexual behavior; recorded conversations that didn’t include Bonds; and voice mails allegedly left by Bonds on the answering machine of former girlfriend Kimberly Bell.

Bonds’ lawyers also want to prevent the jury from hearing evidence of at least four positive steroid tests they argue can’t be conclusively linked to Bonds because of how they were processed.

According to records prosecutors took from BALCO, Bonds tested positive on three separate occasions in 2000 and 2001 for the steroid methenelone in urine samples; he also tested positive two of those three times for the steroid nandrolone.

A government-retained scientist, Dr. Don Catlin, also said he found evidence that Bonds used the designer steroid THG upon retesting a urine sample Bonds supplied as part of baseball’s anonymous survey drug testing in 2003, when the designer drug was not yet detectable. Federal investigators seized them in 2004 from the private laboratory used by Major League Baseball before they could be destroyed, which the players were promised.

Catlin said the sample also tested positive for Clomid, a female fertility drug, and foreign testosterone.

Included in the evidence was a letter from baseball independent drug administrator Bryan Smith that Bonds tested positive for an amphetamine during a drug test on July 7, 2006, when he hit a three-run homer at Dodger Stadium. There also was a letter from baseball commissioner Bud Selig to Bonds that Aug. 1 informing him of the positive test and telling him that he will be subject to six more tests over a one-year period.

The New York Daily News reported on that test on Jan. 11, 2007, saying Bonds attributed the positive test to a substance he had taken from teammate Mark Sweeney’s locker.

The court documents also show that prosecutors plan to call to the witness stand Giambi, along with his brother and former major leaguer Jeremy Giambi. The government also plans to call Bobby Estalella, Marvin Benard and Santiago, all former teammates of Bonds and clients of Anderson.

The government’s case against Barry Bonds includes several positive drug test results that prosecutors say belong to the former San Francisco Giants slugger.

That evidence will be part of hundreds of pages of court filings by prosecutors and Bonds’ attorneys that a federal judge plans to unseal Wednesday.

The documents are expected to reveal details of the government’s allegations against Bonds, who is accused of lying to a grand jury about alleged use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Among the positive drug test results is a urine sample submitted by Bonds during baseball’s anonymous testing program in 2003, according to a New York Times report.

Bonds’ sample did not test positive under MLB’s program but was retested by investigators after it was seized in a 2004 raid, anonymous sources told the newspaper.

The documents to be released Wednesday will also include a transcript of a recorded conversation between Bonds’ personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds’ former business partner, Steve Hoskins.

Bonds is expected to plead not guilty to perjury charges for the third time Thursday, the same day U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston will consider what government evidence to exclude from the slugger’s trial next month.

Bonds has pleaded not guilty twice before, the first time in November 2007 when prosecutors unsealed an indictment charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. A judge has ordered prosecutors to revise the indictment twice to repair legal technicalities. Bonds pleaded not guilty after the first revision but has yet to appear in court to answer to the second revised indictment, which was unsealed on Dec. 4.

Prosecutors say Bonds lied to a federal grand jury when he denied knowingly taking performance enhancing drugs during his pursuit of the game’s single-season home run mark and Hank Aaron’s vaunted career record.

Bonds testified in December 2003 that he took substances provided by Anderson, his personal trainer, that the government says were a designer steroid. But Bonds told the grand jury that he did not know he was taking performance-enhancing drugs at the time. He also has denied knowingly taking other steroids and human growth hormone.

Prosecutors argue they can prove through positive test results and other evidence that Bonds lied.

Bonds’ attorneys are seeking to exclude several urine and blood test results from the trial, which is scheduled to start March 2.

When Bonds’ attorneys filed court papers on Jan. 15 looking to exclude the material, they filed the details of their argument under seal. They argued that making details of the test results public would harm Bonds’ chances of getting a fair trial by tainting potential jurors.

The government’s response, which includes much of the evidence it intends to show jurors, was filed under seal last week.

The judge initially ordered those documents to remain under seal. But she changed her mind earlier this week after The Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News protested. Illston said Tuesday that the release of the documents will not hurt Bonds’ chances for a fair trial.

Lead prosecutor Matt Parrella declined comment. Bonds’ lead attorney Allen Ruby said he would not fight the judge’s unsealing order.