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The Case Against BondsWeighing In
Veteran defense attorney Michael Shapiro in New York, "It's a defensible case. Perjury cases turn on technicalities. A person who understood that is [former President] William Jefferson Clinton, who once famously said the definition of one of his answers depended on what the definition of the word 'is' is. Bonds is no Clinton, but prosecutors still have to prove what was going on in his mind when he said what he said."
Former county prosecutor Hugh Levine, who represented Bonds' ex- girlfriend, Kimberly Bell, in her appearance before the grand jury, commented that he was struck by the impreciseness of the questions asked Bonds. "My impression is the questions were posed poorly and imprecisely, and for a prosecutor trying to pin down a witness on perjury, [it was] a poor job. I thought the questions were loosey-goosey and informal almost to the point of being unprofessional," Levine said.
"Perjury is a crime that requires a high degree of precision," he said and that the questions that drew the questionable perjurious answers were not precise. "For example, using the word 'steroids' brings in imprecision because steroids are not illegal . . . . It is possible that the prosecution meant unlawful steroids, controlled steroids. That is what they have to make clear. . . . I would imagine the defense will use professors of linguistics [to testify] about words and multiple meanings."
Bonds former gal-pal, Bell said that Bonds had told her he was using steroids but that she never saw him taking them..
Bell said that his physique change is circumstantial evidence, but that, "That is one thing. Proving that those few sentences pulled out of his grand jury testimony are lies is another thing."
Walt Brown, a Former federal prosecutor, who is now a white-collar-crime defense attorney in the 'Frisco Area, wondered: "What's their proof [that Bonds lied]? What's their evidence? The case will depend on some circumstantial evidence, or statements he made to other people. They need to prove he knew he was taking a steroid."
More than that they need to prove the that the steroid he was taking was an illegal one. If Bonds says, he thought they were asking him if he was taking an illegal steroid, and he answered "No," then he was not lying.
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