In a major relief for troubled baseball star Barry Bonds, the judge on Tuesday disallowed a recording discovered by a key witness in the perjury trial against the former San Francisco Giants slugger. District Judge Susan Illston called the 2003 garbled tape "barely intelligible." The prosecutors must be disappointed with the rule as they were planning to use the tape to bolster the credibility of a key government witness.
In the tape, Bonds ex-business manager, Steve Hoskins, told jurors that he had discussed Bonds and steroids about 50 times with doctor Arthur Ting, Bonds’ orthopedic surgeon. The manager added that he tried to record one of those conversations secretly by hiding a cassette recorder in his jacket pocket. He noted that he failed to locate the tape later on and assumed the recorder had malfunctioned. On his part, Ting refused to admit that he ever had any conversations about Bonds and steroids. Shortly after Ting’s denial, Hoskins found the tape and gave it to the government. But Judge Illston refused to hear it saying it was too late.
"To add the tape at this stage in the proceedings would raise issues related to the authenticity," she said in a hearing without the jury present. In the tape, Bonds former manager tells Ting that federal agents raided the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO) the previous night and shows his worry over Bonds’ future. Bonds is facing trial on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice in connection with his 2003 testimony to a grand jury investigating BALCO.
