Bonds faces Indictment on 14 Perjury counts, plus Obstruction

[PeaveyFury]

The USA filed a superseding indictment against Barry Bonds today, naming 14 separate counts of perjury and a count of obstruction of justice. He was originally charged with 4 counts of perjury and obstruction

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3394878

[burnzy24]

Does anyone have an estimate on how much prison time he faces if convicted?

[craigharmann]

A good long time. And you know the Justice Department isn't going to file a case this high profile unless it's pretty well rock solid. Bye-bye Barry. If Bonds is in prison, would he still be eligible for the HOF?

[eanelson4]

I think each of the perjury counts come w/ a possible 5 years in prison. Not sure about the obstruction

 

5 x 14 = 70 yrs.

[sweepscc]

nah.nah.nah.nah.....hey ...hey...hey.........

[razzzorsharp]

I think this is dumb and a waste of my money. There are people that are making this world a worse place that we could be spending money to try and stop and our government goes out its way to regulate a game.

[PeaveyFury]

Perjury is perjury. If he lied 14 times under oath, it's no different in the eyes of the law than if a bank robber lied 14 times under oath.

 

It's just waaaay more high profile.

[razzzorsharp]

I understand but what I didn't like was that Congress was even in baseball's buisness.

[owbc]

I dislike Barry Bonds. But he was the best player of the 90's and he knew it, but he wasn't getting the attention because the steroid users were stealing the show. The Hall of Fame wasn't good enough, you could see that he wanted to be the best.

 

However, his crime is breaking the hallowed record and then lying about how it did it. As far as I'm concerned, he's already been punished enough by the court of public opinion. No need to scapegoat him, especially by Congress--maybe if they worried about what was actually important then...(bad stuff wouldn't have happened).

[kiwi brewer]

punished enough already? no way. the guy's ego is still large and in charge. the day he admits he did ANYTHING wrong in his life is the day he is finally punished.

 

congress should be protecting the youth of this country, whether that's eliminating guns from the hands of criminals or punishing "idols" who use illegal, poisonous drugs and lie because of it.

 

though, i guess they could sit on their hands and not go after him and just wait until his testicles shrivel, his head dents in and his hands look like golum's. but that may be too late, allowing more kids to think taking steroids is cool and acceptable. (i could have said "until his testicles look like golum's testicles" but i thought that too harsh.)

[TooLiveBrew]

At least he still gets to feel important.

[Madtown Bomber]

If kids are taking steroids because Barry Bonds did then Barry Bonds isn't the blame the parents are. The most frustrating this about this whole steroids thing is that we are out here protecting the youth and showing these wrong do-ers that what they did was wrong. Well no kidding! I am so sick of people in this country and this government hiding behind the protecting the people, or protecting the kids arguement. Parenting in this country is HORRIBLE, and the government is looking for face time. When these people empty their closets out and then admit they are going after people like Bonds because they want face time then maybe I will take these 14 counts of purjury and obstruction seriously.

 

In the meantime we allow multiple time DUI offenders to continue to drive around after they are sentenced to jail to let him kill a principal who was trying her damnest to mold the kids of this world and her kids but I am supposed to worry about whether or not Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens chose to cheat at a GAME. Excuse me while I go put my priorities in order.

[iluvlamp]

Good. I hope he admits to the stuff he did. Which he won't. Something has to give though. With the Feds that should mean he will cop.

[Brawndo the Thirst Mutilat]

"It's exactly the same," Golden Gate University law professor Peter Keane said. "It's two ways of saying it's lying and there's really no substantial difference between what he was charged with then and what he is charged with now."

This is a non-story. It's in response to a defense motion, which was upheld, that said the prosecution was lumping charges into single counts in a way that could be confusing and vague to the jury. So it appears the prosecution split the charges in as atomistic a fashion as they could. If anything, this sequence of events probably counts as a victory for the defense, but in keeping form, ESPN has stuck a headline on it that makes you think Bonds is somehow in even more trouble now, because that's what people want to read and that's what will generate the most click-throughs. Journalistic responsibility? Ethics? ESPN says bah!

[ELCABALLO45]

Just please make all this Bonds talk stop. Just go away.

[Brian the Automator]

I think this is dumb and a waste of my money. There are people that are making this world a worse place that we could be spending money to try and stop and our government goes out its way to regulate a game.

I guess I disagree. If we as a society say that it's OK to perjure yourself, then the legal system becomes a joke.

 

[Invader3K]

While I don't agree necessarily with Bonds being targeted specifically, he was the one who lied and supposedly committed perjury. However, the government had to get involved in the first place, because MLB wasn't doing enough to make sure their own house was cleaned up.

[aracko]

I also think its a waste of money. Not the fact that he i sbeing prosecuted for purgery because thats a huge deal, but the fact that a steroid case has gotten so huge. Who cares if the guy wants to use Steroids. What about all the Charity work that he does? Why baseball and America feels they have a score to settle with the al time Home Run King, I dont understand. What about Dwight Gooden, D Strawberry, Ty Cobb, John Rocker, why arent these guys being made examples of?

 

This is sad to me. Outside of a well known affair, Bonds is really a pretty good person.

[Tbadder]

YEAH! RIGHTEOUS INDIGNATION FULFILLED! FEELING GOOD ABOUT THE WORLD AGAIN! THE KINGPIN OF EVIL CONQUERED! LETS GET THE REST OF THE BAD ONES NOW! OH FRABGEOUS DAY! KALOO KALAY!

[MessiahRp]

I also think its a waste of money. Not the fact that he i sbeing prosecuted for purgery because thats a huge deal, but the fact that a steroid case has gotten so huge. Who cares if the guy wants to use Steroids. What about all the Charity work that he does? Why baseball and America feels they have a score to settle with the al time Home Run King, I dont understand. What about Dwight Gooden, D Strawberry, Ty Cobb, John Rocker, why arent these guys being made examples of?

 

This is sad to me. Outside of a well known affair, Bonds is really a pretty good person.

 

Do you have first hand knowledge of his goodness? All I have ever seen is that the guy is arrogant and comes off as a surly jerk to people.

 

Frankly I hope this ends the ridiculous Bonds is Blackballed talk by some and by the MLBPA. There's no way anybody wants to take a chance on an oft-injured, hobbled, can't play the field, 40 year old who thinks he is worth $15 million or more as it is. But with 14 indictments hanging over his head no team is going to pay a guy that much guaranteed money with the possibility of him being jailed being a very real one.

 

It's not collusion it's having some realism about the circumstances.

 

Rp

[TheBwaz]

Let me dust off my soapbox. As a law talkin' dude I can tell you that the legal system absolutely relies on witnesses telling the truth. It doesn't matter if it is a Grand Jury investigation, a trial, some random hearing, a deposition, or what have you. If people cannot be compelled to tell the truth, the whole thing comes crashing down. Some people may say "great, screw the legal system, it stinks." Well folks, the alternative is pistols at dawn.

 

Why do court cases go on for so long? 90% of the time it is either A) One party avoiding any manner of a hearing where they would be compelled to tell the truth because doing so sinks their case or B) Somebody is lying. The whole Bonds thing would have been over 5 years ago if Bonds had told the truth. He decided it was not in his interest to do so (woulda been hard to keep playing ball) so he lied, and this thing went on.

 

Keep in mind this is just an indictment. The classic saying is that you can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich; the standard of getting an indictment is pretty low.