A federal grand jury in San Francisco that has been investigating baseball home run kin Barry Bonds for four years indicted the former SF Giants slugger late yesterday on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with the BALCO sports steroid scandal, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Bonds faces four charges of perjury and one of obstructing justice. Bonds’ lawyer, Michael Rains, vowed to fight the charges.
On Dec. 4, 2003, Bond was called before the grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO, and was given immunity from prosecution. But he was warned that if he failed to tell the truth he could be indicted for lying under oath. Federal prosecutors confronted him with doping calendars and other documents showing that he had used undetectable steroids, human growth hormone and other drugs, according to BALCO grand jury transcripts reviewed by The Chronicle. Bonds refused to acknowledge using banned drugs. He testified that he thought he was taking flaxseed oil and an arthritis balm.
Link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/15/BAH0TD9S0.DTL&tsp=1