Roger Clemens — hit with criminal charges on Thursday — said he never used anabolic steroids or human growth hormone (HGH), while the baseball great’s lawyer rejected a plea deal from prosecutors.
Clemens, one of the most successful and intimidating pitchers in the history of major league baseball, was indicted on charges of lying to the US Congress when he denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
“I never took HGH or Steroids,” Clemens said in a statement posted on the social networking site Twitter.
PHOTO: EPA
“And I did not lie to Congress. I look forward to challenging the Governments’ accusations, and hope people will keep an open mind until trial. I appreciate all the support I have been getting. I am happy to finally have my day in court,” Clemens added in a message signed with his nickname “Rocket.”
Clemens became the latest major league baseball star, including all-time home run leader Barry Bonds, to face criminal charges related to performance-enhancing drugs.
Rusty Hardin, Clemens’ lawyer, said prosecutors offered a plea bargain to resolve the case.
“They’ve made an offer, and we’ve rejected it,” Hardin told reporters at his Houston law offices.
Under such deals, defendants often plead guilty to a lesser charge in return for sentencing leniency.
Hardin said he expects Clemens to appear in court within three weeks and to go to trial sometime next year.
Clemens did not attend Hardin’s news conference.
Hardin said he and Clemens expected an indictment once Clemens decided to testify before the US Congress in 2008.
He said Clemens is “upbeat” about the opportunity to prove his innocence.
“Everybody has said, accurately, ‘If he did it he should admit it and move on,’” Hardin said. “The problem is: Nobody ever talks about what he should do if he didn’t do it — and he didn’t do it. He’s adamant about that.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier