Legal News

Witness on Bonds?s Steroid Use: ?It Was Getting Out of Hand?

By Ashby Jones

Federal prosecutors in the Barry Bonds case might not have Greg Anderson — Bonds’s former trainer — to testify.

But that doesn’t mean their cupboard is bare, as was demonstrated on Wednesday with the testimony of the government’s lead-off witness, Steve Hoskins.

Hoskins, described by the LAT as a “family friend who grew up with Bonds,” testified that his concern over Bonds’s health led him to secretly tape Bonds’s trainer with the design of presenting the tape to Bonds’s father, Bobby. Click here for the San Francisco Chronicle story as well.

Hoskins told the jury that Bonds asked him to look into the side-effects of steroids in 1999. Hoskins also said he saw Bonds and his trainer with syringes on several occasions in the early 2000s. Bonds often complained he was sore from steroid injections, Hoskins testified, and he urged the player to stop using the drugs.

Still, it sounds as if the defense made some headway on cross-examination. Under questioning by Allen Ruby, Bonds’ lead defense lawyer, Hoskins acknowledged that his relationship with Bonds was fraying at the time that he made the recording. Bonds also had gone to the FBI to complain that Hoskins was engaged in fraudulent business practices.

Hoskins rejected the implication that revenge might have been at play, and said the government had cut him no deals.

“Barry’s a very good friend, a very good person and one of the best baseball players there’s ever going to be,” he said.

Testimony continues on Thursday. The trial is scheduled to last between three and four weeks.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 24, 2011 (boomark / email).