Check another salacious piece of evidence off of the
government’s perjury case against home run king Barry Bonds. During
a brief hearing Thursday in San Francisco federal court, U.S.
District Judge Susan Illston barred prosecutors from letting the
jury hear profanity-laced voice mails that Bonds left for his
former mistress during their clandestine nine-year
relationship.
SAN JOSE
Check another salacious piece of evidence off of the government’s perjury case against home run king Barry Bonds.
During a brief hearing Thursday in San Francisco federal court, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston barred prosecutors from letting the jury hear profanity-laced voice mails that Bonds left for his former mistress during their clandestine nine-year relationship.
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Illston concluded that the voicemails for Kimberly Bell could prejudice the jury, calling them “unattractive, that’s the only reason they could be used.”
“They are at most very marginal in terms of any relevance to this case,” the judge said.
Illston previously refused to allow Bell to recount an alleged incident in which Bonds choked her during the latter part of their relationship, as well as other evidence the defense might try to introduce to undercut her credibility, including a photo spread of her in Playboy magazine.
Federal prosecutors Wednesday released transcripts of the messages, which they say demonstrate Bonds grew increasingly threatening and hostile as a result of taking steroids. But the judge sided with defense lawyers, who argued the voice mails are inflammatory and would prejudice the jury with material irrelevant to the charges against Bonds.
Bonds is scheduled to go on trial Monday on three counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury in 2003 about using performance enhancing drugs.
Prospective jurors arrived Thursday morning in federal court to fill out questionnaires to begin the jury selection process. The 19-page questionnaires probe potential jurors on everything from whether they regularly read sports news or are familiar with the Balco steroids scandal or stories about steroid use in Major League Baseball to whether their view of Bonds is “favorable or unfavorable.”
With an eye toward gleaning bias, the questionnaires also ask whether potential jurors consider themselves San Francisco Giants fans or have attended a game in the past five years.
— Story by Howard Mintz, San Jose Mercury News
