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Jury Finds Barry Bonds GUILTY of Obstruction of Justice [UPDATES]

Andrew Dalton — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 14:45:20 GMT

After four weeks of Barry Bonds' perjury trial, the Jury has reached a verdict on one of the four charges facing the record holding homerun slugger. According to KTVU news by way of the Appeal, after some confusion in the courtroom, Bonds has been declared guilty on the charge of obstruction of justice. On the other three counts of False Declaration to a Grand Jury, the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the judge is declaring a mistrial.

Update: The guilty verdict on the obstruction of justice charge indicates the Jury believed Bonds hindered the 2003 doping investigation by making false statements to the Grand Jury. According to AP reports, Bonds received his verdict "stone faced" as his legal team jumped to ask the judge to throw it out. No immediate ruling was made on the request, but there will be another hearing on May 20th for that case.

Update 2: The LA Times points out: "each count against Bonds carried a possible maximum sentence of 10 years, but federal sentencing guidelines recommend 15 to 21 months in prison for a conviction." So, Barry could be looking at more than a year in the slammer.

The prosecution has not said yet whether they will seek a new trial on the other three counts.

[SFAppeal]
[AP/ESPN]
[LATimes]

Evidence Against Bonds Unsealed

Brock Keeling — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:36:29 GMT

Today in San Francisco, a federal judge opened up hundreds of pages of court documents against disgraced Giants slugger Barry Bonds. According to reports, "The documents released included ... a transcript of a taped conversation between Bonds' personal trainer and personal assistant discussing injecting the slugger and a list of current and former Major Leaguers, including Jason Giambi, who are scheduled to testify at trial for the government." We are very much looking forward to reading said transcript. We'll update when we know more. The Bonds trial is supposed to start next month. He convicted of lying to a grand jury in 2003 when he said he didn't use performance-enhancing drugs during his time with the Giants. Which he totally did.

Barry Bonds: It's A Friggin' Conspiracy!

SFist Christopher Rogers — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:06:27 GMT

MurrayChass.com broke the story:

"I am convinced that Major League Baseball will never let him put on a uniform ever again," said Bonds' agent, Jeff Borris.
Bonds did not play this year. The last time he played was on Sept. 26, 2007, when he failed to get a hit in three times at bat against the San Diego Padres. Try as he did, Borris was unable to find Bonds a job for 2008. Did he think his client was a victim of collusion, Borris was asked on the telephone Tuesday.

"There's not a doubt in my mind," he replied emphatically.

Baseball officials deny Borris' allegation.

And your evidence iiiiiis... what, then?

More likely than Borris' paranoid postulation, the scenario processed out like this: each MLB team's front office considered what sort of production Bonds could lend to their team versus the public relations apocalypse that Bonds would bring their franchise.

Then we'd imagine that they moved on to their next order of business.

Quotes via murraychass.com. Photo via AP.

Indicted: Barry Bonds!

Brock Keeling — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 14:26:04 GMT

Dude. Duuuuuuude.

After a four-year federal investigation, today cranky baseball icon Barry Bonds was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Ouch. And Jesus. He's like Pete Rose, but worse. Which? Again, ouch.

According to CBS 5, "[w]hile Bonds was chasing Aaron amid the adulation of San Franciscans and the scorn of baseball fans almost everywhere else, due to his notoriously prickly personality and nagging steroid allegations, a grand jury quietly worked behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on the long-rumored indictment." Prickly is sure putting it mildly.