The New York Times reports federal investigators are snooping around in Roger Clemens's ex-cell nuclei...looking at the DNA hanging on the bloody syringes that ex-Clemens trainer Brian McNamee claims came from the Rocket's rear-end after steroid injections.
Is this creepy? Investigators taking old bloody syringes for DNA evidence that the needles went into the butt of a multiple Cy Young award winner? Is this exercise preparing a perjury penalty against the Rocket?
Brian McNamee has submitted samples of his DNA to federal investigators, who are seeking to determine whether Roger Clemens committed perjury when he told Congress that he had never used performance-enhancing drugs, according to two people familiar with the matter.
McNamee, who is Clemens’s former trainer, has said that he used needles, syringes and gauze pads to inject Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 2000 and 2001 and that he kept the materials in his basement for years because he was afraid that Clemens might someday betray him.
In January, McNamee gave the materials to federal authorities, who need to determine whose DNA is on the material if it is going to be a factor in the investigation.
It is not clear whether the authorities also have Clemens’s DNA. His lead lawyer, Rusty Hardin, declined on Monday to say whether DNA samples from Clemens had been turned over...
The request for McNamee’s DNA sample suggests that readable DNA has been found on the items that McNamee submitted. Experts in criminal investigations said it was highly unlikely that authorities would request DNA samples without having something with which they could be compared.
It appears the Feds are making a case that in Congressional hearings -- where McNamee and Clemens presented diametrically opposed testimony -- Clemens fibbed about not using steroids and HGH. Investigators must be looking for Clemens's DNA and fingerprints, as well as McNamee's on the syringes that contain PEDs. Thus, evidence for perjury.
Authorities are also trying to determine whether there are fingerprints on the materials McNamee handed over. Emery said in February that in addition to the syringes, needles and gauze pads, McNamee provided authorities with steroid vials that Clemens had given him at the end of the 2002 season.
According to forensic experts, it is fairly easy to plant a person’s DNA on an object they have not touched. The argument that DNA evidence has been tampered with is often made at trials. However, it is much more difficult to get someone’s fingerprint on something without them being aware of the circumstances.
What does perjury in a doping/steroids case get you theses days? A few months house arrest, apparently.
In other news charities don't want none of Roger Clemens's DNA anymore.
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