BREAKING NEWS: Barry Bonds Indicted
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As if we didn't see this coming, Barry Bonds has been indicted on four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice by a federal grand jury. This story was broken by KTVU reporter Rita Williams. This basically means that Barry Bonds is being accused of lying about his use of performance enhancing drugs. The indictment marked the end of one of the longest grand jury investigations in California history.
The text of the indictment is here (PDF format, from ESPN). If you prefer it in HTML, Christof found this version from The Smoking Gun.
From the indictment (emphasis added by Tylersalt):
"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances for Bonds and other athletes."
Bonds' attorney, John Burris:
"I'm surprised, but there's been an effort to get Barry for a long time. I'm curious what evidence they have now they didn't have before."
Click the article below for more details:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/14606146/detail.html
DETAIL EDITS:
- Some are surprised that there was no indictment on tax evasion.
- It is unknown at this time what brought on the indictment today, given that the investigation took four years. It is possible that Greg Anderson flipped and decided to testify against Bonds, or it could be that the grand jury decided that they had enough paperwork and circumstantial evidence for an indictment.
- There is no news as to when a trial will occur. (Edited by Justlittleoleme to add: Bonds is scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in San Francisco on Dec. 7.)
- Details of possible punishments for the charges:
- Each of the four counts of perjury would carry up to 5 years in prison and 3 years of supervised release.
- The count of obstruction of justice carries 10 years in prison and also 3 years of supervised release.
- If found guilty of all counts, Bonds could face up to 30 years in federal prison.
- A federal judge just ordered Greg Anderson to be released from prison. That could mean that he did in fact flip on Bonds... Tylersalt 23:47, 15 November 2007 (UTC)
350 million cigarettes in the slammer is worth a hell of a lot more than $350 million...
And I hope Bonds kept his costume in good shape. Its gonna come in real handy soon....
