The ramp up to the Barry Bonds BALCO perjury trial took off this week. Yesterday Federal Judge Susan Illston released court documents (found here for the adventurous).
The AP complied the positive urine tests Bonds dropped over the years. The first three will be contested because the tests were taken while Bonds was allegedly doped up by BALCO, and thus did not have positive chain of custody. Bonds shows himself to be an accomplished doper: steroids, amphetamines, and (if Game of Shadows be believed), HGH, insulin, and clomid. The LA Times also counts 3 positive tests for anabolic steroids.
The court documents unsealed by a federal judge Wednesday in the
government's criminal case against Barry Bonds included the results of
26 blood and urine tests. Prosecutors contend five are positive for
performance-enhancing drugs. Three of the results were seized from
BALCO and did not include Bonds' name; the government said it
determined they belonged to Bonds through a Bay Area Laboratory
Co-Operative log. The other two were taken by Major League Baseball.
One later was retested by the government, which is when it came up
positive.
_ Nov. 28, 2000: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone
_ Feb. 5, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone
_ Feb. 19, 2001: BALCO urine test positive for methenolone and nandrolone
_ June 4, 2003: MLB urine test positive for THG, clomiphene, exogenous testosterone
_ July 7, 2006: MLB urine test positive for D-amphetamine
The Smoking Gun posted images of Bonds's alleged doping calender...or someone who was a BALCO client with initials BB. Perhaps that would be Bruce Banner, The Hulk.
Gwen Knapp, of the San Francisco Examiner, argues that the various dirty urines produced by Bonds should not be introduced in court as evidence. She cites confidentiality and personal rights as reasons why. We are not quite sure of the legal grounds of that argument.
If she allows them, the validity of all sports drug testing should be called into question. Players' unions and agents should call for the immediate suspension of all drug screening, and Olympic athletes should consider their own rebellion.
The very act of urinating into a cup to satisfy terms of employment straddles the line between an ugly necessity and a civil-liberties violation. But in sports, the benefits of drug testing - creating a disincentive for athletes to pump hormones, speed and blood thickeners into their bodies - outweigh the detriments.
The US Government does not sign confidentiality reciprocal agreements with Major League Baseball. The Govt in pursuit of evidence in the commission of a crime also can obtain other records, including your bank and phone records. Medical confidentiality is given but not in the case of a crime investigation (unless the records are psychiatric). Therefore Knapp's argument appears to be a canard.
As we have argued, the responsibility for protection of confidentiality lies with the lab and with the MLB. If those organizations want complete confidentiality they would have had either a weaver signed with the Govt, or blinded the test results.
Sports Illustrated claims that Greg Anderson, Bonds's ex-trainer will be key to the prosecution. Anderson is an unwilling witness, however is deep into this mess. An Anderson conversation goes like this:
The most important document may be the transcript of a recorded conversation between Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Anderson, and Bonds' former business partner and longtime friend, Steve Hoskins. Assuming the transcript reflects an accurately recorded conversation -- which Bonds' counsel will question, given that Hoskins, rather than a recording specialist, taped it -- Anderson tells Hoskins that he injected Bonds with substances that sound very much like steroids. Here is a particularly telling excerpt from that conversation:
Anderson: [E]verything I've been doing at this point is undetectable.
Hoskins: Right.
Anderson: See, the stuff that I have . . . we created it. And you can't, you can't buy it anywhere. You can't get it anywhere else. But, you can take it the day of and pee.
Hoskins: Uh-huh.
Anderson: And it comes up with nothing.
Hoskins: Isn't that the same [expletive] that Marion Jones and them were using?
Anderson: Yeah same stuff, the same stuff that worked at the Olympics.
Interesting. Anderson's conversation implicate Bonds in this widespread sports fraud conspiracy. Whatever a person's attitude toward the use of PEDs in sports, the subversion of the normal rules and workings of the sports leagues and Olympics should give pause.
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Posted by: UGG Greenfield | 10/07/2011 at 02:14