It took the legal world’s version of quite a few extra innings, but it appears home run king Barry Bonds has won his most important game against the federal government.
A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned Bonds’ 2011 obstruction of justice conviction, concluding there was insufficient evidence to back up the charge that his rambling testimony interfered with a federal grand jury probing the BALCO steroids scandal more than a decade ago.
In a 10-1 ruling, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals delivered an overwhelming blow to the government’s high-profile, oft-sidetracked case against the former San Francisco Giant, accused of lying to the grand jury about using steroids as he chased baseball’s home run records. The appeals court ruling wiped out what is left of the Bonds prosecution, which began in 2003 when his name surfaced in records linked to a then-obscure Peninsula laboratory known as BALCO that became the epicenter of doping in sports.
The 9th Circuit barred the government from retrying Bonds on the charge, leaving an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court as the Justice Department’s only long shot option to revive the conviction. U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag could not immediately be reached for comment.
Bonds, in a statement, said he was relieved at the decision, calling the case a “strenuous period” in his life and declaring, “I very much look forward to moving beyond it.”
Dennis Riordan, Bonds’ lawyer, said the emphatic 10-judge 9th Circuit majority should dissuade the government from pursuing the case further. “It’s an absolutely extraordinary result to get an acquittal,” he said.
For Bonds, the clearing of his criminal record could provide ammunition for his stated goal of eventually gaining entry into baseball’s Hall of Fame, although the baseball world long ago concluded he used performance enhancing drugs to boost his career, and Bonds himself testified that he was simply not aware the substances he was taking were steroids known as the “cream” and the “clear.”
For the government, the appeals court ruling represents a glaring loss in an otherwise successful exposure of the scope of doping in major sports ranging from professional football to Olympic track and field. The investigation netted a number of convictions and prison terms, including BALCO mastermind Victor Conte, but it appears the superstar considered the biggish fish got away in the end.
“This is a stunning, high profile loss for the government and a grand slam for the defense,” said William Keane, a former federal prosecutor who defended track coach Trevor Graham during the BALCO probe. “After many years, the case is over for good, and Bonds has won.”
Bonds was indicted in 2007 on perjury and obstruction charges related to lying to the grand jury in the midst of what became the most extensive investigation of steroid use in sports. A San Francisco jury more than three years ago deadlocked on the central perjury charges against Bonds but convicted him on an obstruction charge for his rambling answer to a question about whether his former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, had ever supplied or injected him with steroids.
The answer included musings about being “a celebrity child with a famous father” and other remarks jurors later said were meant to evade questions about his steroid use. Bonds’ lawyers have argued that the answer could not amount to a felony, and the 9th Circuit agreed, warning that the obstruction statute used to convict the former baseball star was not intended to criminalize such courtroom testimony.
“The most one can say about this statement is that it was nonresponsive and thereby impeded the investigation to a small degree by wasting the grand jury’s time and trying the prosecutors’ patience,” 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski wrote. “But real-life witness examinations, unlike those in movies and on television, invariably are littered with nonresponsive and irrelevant answers.”
Only 9th Circuit Judge Johnnie Rawlinson dissented, saying the ruling overturning Bonds’ conviction had “struck out.”
The ruling marked Bonds’ only success in his fight to totally clear his record of the felony conviction. The 9th Circuit agreed last year to reconsider a previous ruling upholding the conviction.
The 51-year-old Bonds, who finished his career in 2007, already served his sentence while he appealed the conviction. He spent a month under electronic monitoring at his Southern California home.
During Bonds’ trial, other ballplayers, including baseball stars such as former Oakland A’s and New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, were hauled into court to recount their relationship with BALCO as prosecutors tried to prove that Bonds misled the grand jury about steroid use and his ties to BALCO and Anderson.
Conte did not testify, but has always maintained that the government overreached in its investigation of Bonds. In a statement Wednesday, Conte said: “Barry Bonds finally gets to move on with his life. Let’s hope the prosecutors choose not to waste any more resources on what has been nothing more than a frivolous trophy hunt.”
Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236. Follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz.
