This could be huge news for professional sports and major league baseball
Federal Grand Jury Indicts Barry Bonds
By PAUL ELIAS
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Barry Bonds was indicted Thursday on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, culminating a four-year federal investigation into whether he lied under oath to a grand jury looking into steroid use by elite athletes.
The indictment came three months after the 43-year-old Bonds passed Hank Aaron to become baseball's career home run leader. Bonds parted ways with the San Francisco Giants after the season.
While Bonds was chasing Aaron, a grand jury was working behind closed doors to put the finishing touches on the long-rumored indictment.
I'll update as more news becomes available.
San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds laughs in the dugout after taking batting practice before their baseball game against the San Diego Padres in San Francisco, in this Sept. 25, 2007 file photo. Barry Bonds has a public offer on the free-agent market _ from the independent Washington Wild Things, who play not far from where Bonds began his major league career in Pittsburgh. Of course, a pay cut is involved.
(AP Photo) -- via The Modesto Bee
Update #1
This from ESPN
"I'm surprised," said John Burris, one of Bonds' attorneys, "but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. "I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."
The indictment charges Bonds with lying when he said that he didn't knowingly take steroids given to him by his personal trainer Greg Anderson. He also denied taking steroids at anytime in 2001 when he was pursuing the single season home-run record.
"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes," the indictment reads.
He is also charged with lying that Anderson never injected him with steroids.
"Greg wouldn't do that," Bonds testified in December 2003 when asked if Anderson ever gave him any drugs that needed to be injected. "He knows I'm against that stuff."
Update #2
The Contra Costa Times adds this
Unbridled power comes back to haunt Bonds
Contra Costa Times
Article Launched: 11/15/2007 02:30:51 PM PST
NOW THAT Barry Bonds has received his long-anticipated invitation to visit federal court, you can expect his lawyers to deliver more well-crafted bluster about how unfairly he has been singled out.
They'll tell us that the Feds have had Bonds in their cross hairs throughout their broadside on steroids in sports. They'll tell us that in an era rife with artificially enhanced athletes, Bonds is an inviting target as one of the marquee players in his sport.
To some extent, those assertions are correct. Bonds is the bull's-eye on the archery range. If the government was determined to deliver a head on a platter, why not aim for the biggest, both literally and figuratively?