12/21/24
July 21, 2015
The Justice Department has ended its criminal case against Barry Bonds.: The U.S. Department of Justice will not appeal a court ruling that cleared baseball player Barry Bonds of obstruction of justice in a probe over steroids. The DOJ's move effectively ends the long criminal prosecution of the sport's career home run leader. The slugger was convicted on one obstruction charge in 2011, and the jury deadlocked on three perjury counts. His sentence of two years of probation and 30 days of home confinement was put on hold pending his appeal.
posted by Ufez Jones to baseball at 01:11 PM - 8 comments
It smells like someone in the upper-level of the government has turned the screws on the men in charge of this case to "do something", and dismissing a second grand jury without an indictment after all this time would be a monstrous blow to everyone involved (except Bonds). So they gritted their teeth, decided their "evidence" isn't going to get any better, and decided to take a run at it. Now consider this: What if the indictment gets tossed out, or Bonds is found not guilty of all charges? They'll have given him and his records "legitimacy". While it looks like Bonds is in trouble now, it could turn into a huge public relations boon for him in the end.
Of course, I didn't think it would take EIGHT YEARS to get to this point, so that last line is probably not true. If it had happened in half the time (say, before he became eligible for the HOF), then maybe it might have made a difference. At this point, almost every casual fan will think that "Bonds was found guilty of steroids", or something like that.
posted by grum@work at 01:49 PM on July 21, 2015
Nine years ago, I said this:
I seriously doubt Bonds gets jail time in any of this. First, perjury is quite difficult to prove, and this is going to come down to a he said/she said type of thing. Second, depending on the scope and nature of the tax transgressions, the more likely result is payment of back taxes and a fine to the IRS as part of a plea. I know the tax investigators have a hard on for Bonds (I believe the whole Balco thing was initiated by federal agents with the Dept. of the Treasury), but who knows if the U.S. Attorney does. Overall, though, great use of public resources. (And watch this post end up in yerfatma's great predictions list after Bonds gets 5 years in jail.)
Still thought it was a waste of public resources back then, apparently, and that was before they got to the tab we currently have (cannot find reliable figures anywhere, but have seen $6-10MM thrown out for just the Bonds prosecution and upwards of $50MM for Balco writ large).
posted by holden at 01:56 PM on July 21, 2015
I was looking for an X years ago I said this, and came across this shitshow of a thread.
posted by alex_reno at 12:35 AM on July 22, 2015
I was looking for an X years ago I said this, and came across this shitshow of a thread.
Oh, man. I forgot about that one.
My blood pressure was rising just reading some of that again.
That said, my heart smiled when I read this comment:
And thank goodness Aaron's record will remain intact. How many homers do you think he would have hit if he had used any kind of supplements?
posted by trox at 01:06 PM on August 02
Hah!
posted by grum@work at 08:57 AM on July 22, 2015
We used to have some wonderful discussions about Barry Bonds.
posted by Ying Yang Mafia at 09:00 AM on July 22, 2015
That was delicious. I read every comment.
Rust belt? Never heard of it!
posted by tron7 at 11:18 AM on July 22, 2015
Yeah, Bonds certainly brings out the best in people.
I'd have to say my favorite was "Bonds hates white people."
posted by alex_reno at 10:24 PM on July 22, 2015
Well, that was certainly worth the cost of the prosecution.