Bonds found guilty of obstruction of justice

Mistrial declared on three remaining perjury charges

SAN FRANCISCO -- A jury has found Barry Bonds guilty on one federal charge of obstruction of justice while a mistrial was declared on the remaining three counts of making false declarations to a grand jury.
The eight women and four men who were impaneled March 22 in Judge Susan Illston's courtroom and listened to 11 days of testimony and arguments took more than three days to come in with their verdict on Bonds, the Major Leagues' all-time leader in home runs and a seven-time Most Valuable Player.

The charges were based on Bonds' Dec. 4, 2003, testimony before the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) grand jury in which he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs. The trial took place in the U.S. District Court, Northern California District, in Courtroom 10 of the Phillip Burton Federal Building.

On Monday, the jury asked that the testimony of former personal shopper Kathy Hoskins be re-read. Hoskins testified at trial to having witnessed Bonds receiving an injection from former trainer Greg Anderson, and a court employee read the entire testimony in open court.

On Friday, the first day of deliberations, the jury reheard a secretly taped recording Steve Hoskins, Bonds' childhood friend and former business manager, made of a conversation with Anderson in which they discussed injections of performance-enhancing drugs.

Bonds originally was indicted on four charges of giving false testimony and one charge of obstruction of justice on Nov. 15, 2006. He pleaded not guilty on Dec. 7, 2006. A second indictment added 10 charges, but the third superseding indictment on Feb. 10 of this year was pared back down to four charges of making false declarations and one of obstruction of justice when the trial began. One of the charges of making false statements was dropped prior to closing arguments during the trial.

The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew Parrella and Jeffrey Nedrow, called 25 witnesses to the stand, including active baseball player Jason Giambi and former players Jeremy Giambi, Marvin Benard and Randy Velarde. The witness list also included Steve Hoskins, Kathy Hoskins and former mistress Kimberly Bell, along with a parade of drug-testing employees and experts. The prosecution was not able to compel Anderson to testify, however, so he was sent back to federal prison for contempt of court at the beginning of the trial, then released when the jury went into deliberations.

The defense team, led by Allen Ruby and Cristina Arguedas, did not present a single witness, only reading part of the testimony Bell gave the Bonds grand jury to demonstrate contradictions with her testimony at trial. They vigorously cross-examined Bell and Steve Hoskins, in particular, and argued in closing that the government's pursuit of Bonds was motivated by the fact that he wasn't intimidated by investigators at the grand jury.

Bonds, 46, hit 762 home runs in his career, surpassing Hank Aaron's previous career record of 755 in 2007. A 14-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glove winner whose seven MVP awards are a record, Bonds set the single-season mark for homers with 73 in 2001. He also stands as the all-time leader in walks with 2,558 and intentional walks with 688 and remains the only player to record 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases.

The son of three-time All-Star Bobby Bonds and the godson of Hall of Famer Willie Mays, Bonds played for the Pirates for seven seasons (1986-92) before signing as a free agent with his hometown Giants prior to the 1993 season, leading the National League with 46 homers and 123 RBIs that year to claim his third NL MVP honor. Bonds later won four consecutive MVP awards, from 2001-04.