Video: Former MVP Testifies in Bonds Perjury Trial The Associated Press

Barry Bonds Trial Begins Today

8:16 AM:Former San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has arrived at thefederal courthouse where his trial on perjury charges begins today,seven years after he told a grand jury he never knowingly tooksteroids.

Jury selection for his trial is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. inthe court of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston at the Federal Buildingon Golden Gate Avenue in San Francisco.

The selection of the 12 jurors and four alternates will begin with the questioning of an initial pool of 50 prospective jurors.

The trial is expected to last several weeks.

Bonds, 46, is accused of four counts of false statements and onecount of obstruction of justice in testimony before a federal grandjury on Dec. 4, 2003.

The grand jury was investigating the sale of performance-enhancing drugs by the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO.

The former San Francisco Giants outfielder set Major LeagueBaseball's career home-run record of 762 during his last season withthe team in 2007. He hit the single-season record of 73 in 2001.

Bonds is the last of 11 defendants who were charged in federal courtin San Francisco with either illegal drug distribution or lying inconnection with BALCO probe.

Eight defendants - including two BALCO officials, a chemist andBonds' trainer, Greg Anderson - pleaded guilty to various charges.

Two others - cycling champion Tammy Thomas and Olympic track coachTrevor Graham - went to trial in Illston's court and were separatelyconvicted of lying to investigators or the grand jury.

The five counts against Bonds each carry a theoretical maximumsentence of 10 years in prison if he is convicted. But on similarcharges, Thomas and Graham were sentenced to six months and one year ofhome confinement, respectively.

7:28 AM: More than seven years after Barry Bonds tolda grand jury he never knowingly took steroids, the home-run champion isdue to go on trial in federal court in San Francisco Monday on perjurycharges.
Bonds, 46, is accused of four counts of false statements and onecount of obstruction of justice in Dec. 4, 2003, testimony before afederal grand jury investigating sports drug sales by the Bay AreaLaboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO.

His trial in the court of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston beginsMonday morning with jury selection and is expected to last three orfour weeks.

The former San Francisco Giants outfielder set Major LeagueBaseball's career home-run record of 762 during his last season withthe team in 2007. He hit the single-season record of 73 in 2001.

Bonds is the last of 11 defendants who were charged in federal courtin San Francisco with either illegal drug distribution or lying inconnection with BALCO probe.

Eight defendants - including two BALCO officials, a chemist andBonds' trainer, Greg Anderson - pleaded guilty to various charges.

Two others, cycling champion Tammy Thomas and Olympic track coachTrevor Graham, went to trial in Illston's court and were separatelyconvicted of lying to investigators or the grand jury.

The five counts against Bonds each carry a theoretical maximumsentence of 10 years in prison if he is convicted. But on similarcharges, Thomas and Graham were sentenced, respectively, to six monthsand one year of home confinement.

Bonds' four alleged lies to the grand jury were statements that henever knowingly took steroids from Anderson; never was injected by him;never knowingly took human growth hormone from him; and never tookanything other than vitamins from him before 2003.

When asked, "Did you ever take any steroids that he gave you?"

Bonds answered, "Not that I know of," according to the indictment.

The fifth count accuses Bonds of obstructing justice by givingtestimony that was allegedly "intentionally evasive, false andmisleading" in those and other statements.

The current charges, issued in February, are the fourth version ofan indictment originally filed by a federal grand jury on Nov. 15,2007.

Federal prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office had hoped Anderson would be a key witness against Bonds.

But Anderson, a childhood friend of Bonds, has told Illston he willrefuse to testify. The trainer is due to appear before the judgeTuesday morning to say whether he will continue to refuse to take thestand. Prosecutors have asked Illston to order him imprisoned forcontempt of court for the duration of the trail if he declines totestify.

Without Anderson's testimony, prosecutors are planning an array ofother evidence to prove their allegation that Bonds had in fact takensteroids and therefore lied in his 2003 statements.

The evidence will include testimony from six baseball players whoare slated to tell the jury that Anderson gave themperformance-enhancing drugs, according to a prosecution witness list.

Illston has ruled that prosecutors can use that testimony to try toshow that Anderson had access to such drugs, had a plan fordistributing them, and told the players what the drugs were.
But she has said that prosecutors can't argue that the alleged factthat Anderson gave drugs to other athletes therefore shows that he gavethem to Bonds as well.

An ex-girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, is due to testify about physicalchanges in Bonds' body after he allegedly began taking steroids in thelate 1990s.

Prosecutors also want to play a tape of a secretly recordedconversation between Anderson and Bonds' former business manager, SteveHoskins, at the San Francisco Giants clubhouse in the spring of 2003.
In the tape, Anderson refers to having given injections to a personnamed "Barry" and to the use of an "undetectable" material that "workedat the Olympics."

Illston has tentatively ruled the tape can be used as evidence, butonly if prosecutors first prove that the substances mentioned byAnderson were illegal at the time periods referred to by the trainer.

The selection of the 12 jurors and four alternates will begin withthe questioning of an initial pool of 50 prospective jurors inIllston's Federal Building courtroom.

The candidates have already filled out an 18-page questionnaire withqueries such as whether they know any of the lawyers or witnesses inthe case; whether they know of Congressional hearings on the steroiduse by Major League Baseball players; and whether they have attended aGiants game in the past five years.

The aim is to get a group of 36 potential jurors after candidateswho are unable to serve have been dismissed, either because they may bebiased in favor of one side or the other, or for other reasons.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers will then take turns exercisingso-called peremptory challenges, in which they can dismiss jurycandidates without giving a reason.

Under court rules, prosecutors can use peremptory challenges todismiss a total of eight potential regular jurors and alternates, whilethe defense can dismiss 12.

That part of the process is done silently, and when it is over, thecourt will be left with 12 jurors and four alternates. The jurors willbe identified only by number and not by name.

If the selection goes quickly and smoothly, opening statements could begin as early as Tuesday morning.

Julia Cheever, Bay City News

KAMAL NATH DENIED DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY IN USA

This is really a step forward.  Kamal Nath does not have diplomatic immunity in the USA and Sikhs For Justice's (SFJ) case against him can go on as planned.  My understanding is that he is due for a pre-trial conference this Wednesday.

 

FROM:Tamil Daily News

February 6, 2011

Kamal Nath summoned by US court in 1984 Sikh riots case

By Arun Kumar

Washington,(IANS) Indian Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath has been summoned by a New York court for a pre-trial conference Feb 9 for his alleged role in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.The trial will proceed as the US State Department has declined to intervene in the case due to the seriousness of allegations of human rights violation against Kamal Nath, according to Gurpatwant S. Pannun, legal advisor for Sikhs For Justice (SFJ), a US based human rights advocacy group.

After being summoned by the Southern district court of New York Dec 10, 2010, Kamal Nath had sought diplomatic immunity. His request for immunity has now been turned down by the State Department, Pannun said.

In April 2010, SFJ along with two individuals filed a law suit against Kamal Nath under Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) & Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) asking the court to order compensatory and punitive damages against the minister.

According to Pannun: “Alien Tort Claims Act of United State, the law under which trial against Kamal Nath will be held is specifically created to provide remedy and forum to victims of genocide to vindicate their complaints.”

The trial against Kamal Nath “is one such opportunity through which SFJ plans to put on the record of the court evidence related to genocide of Sikhs and Kamal Nath’s role in it,” he said.

Plaintiffs have asked for a “jury trial” and will have the right to call upon survivors and experts on genocide as witnesses to prove that systematic killing of Sikhs in November 1984 was genocide as defined in Article 2 of the UN Convention on Genocide.

Responding to Kamal Nath’s comment that “no case has been filed against him in India during past 26 years”, Pannun said Nath’s argument is absurd because if a case is not filed against a criminal, it does not mean that he has not committed the crimes.

SFJ and victims of November 1984 riots also plan to launch a campaign in India asking Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to sack Kamal Nath from his cabinet position for his alleged involvement in attack on Gurdawara Rakab Ganj Sahib in Delhi, Pannun said.

More than 3,000 people were killed in various clashes across north India during the riots that followed the assassination of then prime minister Indira Gandhi Oct 31, 1984.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)

This YouTube video is from last year;  I include it because it contains a lot of useful information and it is always interesting to see actual tapes of accused.