Barry Bonds Trial Begins: Opening Statements

by NowPublic Staff | March 22, 2011 at 08:53 am

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Barry Bonds Perjury Trial Begins

The Barry Bonds trial is now underway in San Francisco. Barry Bonds is known for juicing, he's not actually on trial for steroid use. Barry Bonds is being tried for perjury after he was accused of lying to a grand jury about his steroid use during a US government investigation of the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO), which was at the center of the steroid scandal.

Jury selection was not easy: Barry Bonds is as big a star as the Giants have ever had. Prosecutors will try to prove that Barry Bonds' testimony during the BALCO hearings, which began in 2002, was knowingly false. The Former San Francisco Giants left-fielder was actually indicted in 2007, but the trial kept getting delayed.

The opening statements are underway, and federal prosecutor Matt Parrella just gets right into it:

Parrella has then moved to Balco's role in distributing "designer steroids" such as the "cream" and the "clear" that were developed to avoid detection by anti-doping agencies. And he's moving into the deleterious impact of steroids and the symptoms, from acne on the back and shoulders to the shrinking of the testicles and declining sexual performance. The government is expected to try to prove Bonds experienced those symptoms as a result of steroid use.

Barry Bonds and THG: 'The Clear'

During the BALCO grand jury hearings, Barry Bonds said that he never knowingly took performance-enhancing drugs, but admitted to unknowingly using some of BALCO's doping products, including THG (tetrahydrogestrinone), also known as "the clear", due to its undetectability in drug tests at the time.

Why Prosecute Barry Bonds?

The federal government is spending between $10 and $50 million on the Barry Bonds trial but, even if convicted, he is highly unlikely to see any jail time. "What's the point?" is a very fair question. Everybody knows Bonds used steroids- that's not even the issue. His record is already tainted as well.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Star wonders if the Barry Bonds trial will mark the closure of the steroid era. Clearly they've never heard of professional cycling.

Barry Bonds holds the Major League Baseball records for career home runs (762)and home runs in a single season (73).