Barry Bonds’ lawyers focused on Thursday on discrediting witnesses testifying against baseball’s home run king while prosecutors called on an anti-doping expert to discuss signs of drug use.
The testimony of Larry Bowers, a senior managing director at the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), set the stage for expected testimony next week about Bonds’ changing physical appearance.
Bonds, who holds both the single-season and career-home run records, is accused of lying when he told a 2003 grand jury he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
He has pleaded not guilty to four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice.
With key government witnesses — including an ex-girlfriend expected to talk about Bonds’ allegedly growing muscles and shrinking testicles — taking the stand next week, defense attorney Allen Ruby grilled another witness: former friend and business manager of the San Francisco Giants star, Steve Hoskins.
Ruby forced Hoskins to admit he was unclear on many specifics of his testimony.
During cross-examination by Ruby, Hoskins acknowledged he was fuzzy on what exactly his sister had told him about seeing Bonds receive an injection from his trainer.
Hoskins also said he wasn’t sure when he had secretly recorded the trainer, Greg Anderson, talking about techniques for injecting banned drugs in a conversation that referred to Bonds.
It may have been after his bitter business breakup with Bonds, Hoskins said, although he had previously testified he made the recording when the two were still friends in an effort to convince Bonds to stop using steroids.
Ruby pressed Hoskins about whether he had recorded the locker room chat as part of a plot against Bonds as the relationship soured — something Hoskins denied.
Jurors listened to the garbled recording on Wednesday in which Anderson talks about the importance of moving the injection site around to avoid infection.
He also mentions he’s unconcerned about the drugs being discovered in testing because Olympic sprint star Marion Jones took the same substances without being caught.
Anderson is currently behind bars for refusing to testify in this case.
Bowers told jurors about potential side effects of performance-enhancing drugs, including hair loss, acne, bloating, testicular atrophy and impotence. All are symptoms ex-girlfriend Kimberly Bell is expected to say she observed in Bonds.
“What would happen to a man’s testes if he took high doses of steroids?” prosecutor Matthew Parrella asked.
“They would shrink,” Bowers replied.
Defense attorney Ruby maintained it was impossible to measure changes in testicle size without the use of a medical instrument called an orchidometer.
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