Legal News

Bonds Mistress Says Bonds Abused Her, Blamed Injury on Steroids

By Ashby Jones

We reported on Friday that this week was going to be a potentially explosive one in the Barry Bonds perjury trial, what with his former mistress, Kimberly Bell, taking the stand.

And yes, as we write, we hear loud pops, smell smoke and see flames — all the way across the country. Explosions are happening, LBers.

According to this account in the LA Times, Bell (pictured) testified “tearfully” on Monday that Bonds verbally and physically abused her after he began using steroids around 2000.

According to the account:

Bell (pictured), told the jury Bonds threatened to cut off her head, cut out her breast implants and to burn her house when he could not reach her by telephone.

“He was just very controlling,” said Bell, her voice breaking with emotion.

After he began taking the drugs, he became aggressive, impatient and abusive, Bell testified. She said his testicles also shrank and that he became unable to perform sexually.

Click here, also, for the AP article; here for the San Francisco Chronicle story.

The AP account reports that Bell said Bonds blamed an elbow injury in 1999 on steroid use, and that Bonds talked about the widespread use of steroids among baseball players.

“He mentioned that other players do it and that’s how they got ahead, that’s how they achieved,” Bell testified.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Cris Arguedas suggested that Bell was, well, laying it on a little thick. She asked if Bell had had a “tremendous amount of practice” telling her story because she had told it in at least 20 media interviews. Bell acknowledged doing lots of interviews.

“On how many of those radio shows did you cry when describing this information?” asked Cristina Arguedas, a member of Bonds’ defense team. “None, right?”

Testimony was slated to continue Monday afternoon.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 28, 2011 (boomark / email).