Jurors in the federal perjury trial of home-run champion Barry Bonds in San Francisco completed their first day of deliberations today without reaching a verdict and will resume their discussions Monday.
The first order of business for the jury on Monday will be to hear a reading of the trial testimony of prosecution witness Kathy Hoskins, a former personal shopper for Bonds.
Bonds, 46, is accused of making three false statements and obstructing justice when he testified in 2003 before a federal grand jury investigating the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.
The former San Francisco Giants slugger is accused of lying when he said he never knowingly received steroids or human growth hormone from his trainer, Greg Anderson, and never received any kind of injection from Anderson.
Hoskins’ testimony was an important piece of prosecution evidence because she said she saw Anderson inject Bonds in the navel with an unknown substance while she was packing clothes for Bonds for a Giants road trip in 2002.
The jury’s return to the Federal Building courthouse on Monday will mark the fourth week of the trial, which began on March 21. The jurors requested the read-back of Hoskins’ testimony shortly before adjourning at 3:40 p.m.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston told them, “We can do that first thing Monday morning after you come back.”
In another development today, Anderson was released from the Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin midday today after Illston signed an order ending his custody.
On March 22, Illston found Anderson in contempt of court and ordered him jailed for the duration of the trial after he refused to testify as a prosecution witness.
A spokesman for one of Anderson’s lawyers, Paula Canny, confirmed early this afternoon that Anderson had been released from prison.
Prosecution had sought Anderson as a key witness to support their claims that Bonds knowingly received steroids, human growth hormone and an injection from him and therefore lied in his grand jury testimony.
Without Anderson’s testimony, prosecutors had to rely on circumstantial evidence from former associates and a former Bonds girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, for much of their case.
Kathy Hoskins’ testimony that she saw Anderson inject Bonds was one of the few pieces of direct prosecution testimony related to the three alleged lies.
Defense attorneys suggested during closing arguments Thursday that her testimony was influenced by a motive to protect her brother, Steve Hoskins, a former business associate whom Bonds fired in 2003 after accusing him of theft and forgery in their memorabilia company.
Bonds attorney Cristina Arguedas told the jury Thursday that when federal investigators interviewed Kathy Hoskins in 2005, Steve Hoskin was her employer, was under criminal investigation in connection with the theft allegations and had told prosecutors she had useful information about Bonds.
Also today, Illston granted a defense request that she give the jury an additional instruction explaining that a prosecutor misstated a witness’s testimony concerning flaxseed oil during his closing argument on Thursday.
Illston told jurors that Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella erred when he said that the Giants’ former head trainer, Stan Conte, testified that a stretching trainer had rubbed flaxseed oil on Bonds.
In fact, another prosecutor, Jeff Nedrow, had correctly said earlier in the prosecution arguments that Conte testified he knew nothing about flaxseed oil, the judge said.
The discrepancy between the two prosecutors’ statements “was a little glitch” and Nedrow’s comment was the correct one, Illston told the jurors.
During his 2003 grand jury testimony, Bonds admitted receiving substances known as “the clear” and “the cream” from Anderson but said he thought they were flaxseed oil and an arthritis ointment. The two substances were later identified as so-called designer steroids engineered to avoid detection.
The jurors’ note asking for a read-back of Kathy Hoskins’ testimony was the second message sent out from the jury room today.
Earlier, jury members asked for a full transcript and the full recording of a tape of a conversation with Anderson that Steve Hoskins secretly taped at the Giants clubhouse in the spring of 2003.
Prosecutors claim the tape, which is indistinct and clouded with background noise, shows Anderson discussing giving Bonds injections.
Illston told the jurors they could hear a replay of the tape while looking at a transcript prepared by prosecutors, but said they could not keep the transcript because it was not admitted into evidence. Only the tape was admitted, she said.
The tape was then replayed for the jurors, who were allowed to look at the transcript again while listening.
Bonds hit Major League Baseball’s single-season record of 73 home runs in 2001 and the all-time career record of 762 in his last season with the Giants in 2007.
Julia Cheever, Bay City News
Want more news, sent to your inbox every day? Then how about subscribing to our email newsletter? Here’s why we think you should. Come on, give it a try.
