Former major league catcher Bobby Estalella has been subpoenaed
by federal prosecutors to testify at Barry Bonds’ trial, ESPN.com
reported Thursday
BRISTOL, CONN.
Former major league catcher Bobby Estalella has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors to testify at Barry Bonds’ trial, ESPN.com reported Thursday.
Estalella, who was on the San Francisco Giants with Bonds in 2000 and 2001, is expected to testify to firsthand knowledge that Bonds used steroids, the Web site said, citing an unidentified source with knowledge of the evidence. The Web site attributed knowledge of the subpoenas to two unidentified sources.
Estalella testified before a federal grand jury in November 2003. He admitted to the grand jury that he used using performance-enhancing drugs, the San Francisco Chronicle reported in December 2004.
The book “Game of Shadows,” by two Chronicle reporters, says Estalella received a drug schedule from Greg Anderson, Bonds’ trainer, advising him to use human growth hormone, the steroids “the cream” and “the clear,” and the female fertility drug Clomid.
The Mitchell Report on drugs in baseball, released in December 2007, says that when the Los Angeles Dodgers considered signing Estalella as a free agent after the 2003 season, one team official noted in an internal conversation that Estalella was a “poster boy for the chemicals.”
Bonds pleaded not guilty to charges of lying and obstruction of justice in connection with his grand jury testimony in December 2003. Bonds, who in his testimony denied using performance-enhancing drugs, is scheduled for trial starting March 2 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Twenty federal agents raided the home of Anderson’s mother-in-law on Wednesday.
Madeleine Gestas and her daughter Nicole Anderson, the trainer’s wife, are the target of a tax investigation that Anderson’s lawyer said is aimed at pressuring the trainer to testify at Bonds’ trial.
Anderson’s lawyer, Mark Geragos, believes the raid was in response to his refusal to tell prosecutors whether Anderson would testify. Anderson served more than a year in prison for refusing to testify to the grand jury.
