Bonds prosecutors may settle for one verdict

SAN FRANCISCO -- When federal prosecutors dismissed three perjury charges against Barry Bonds after a jury deadlocked, they said the dismissal would be "without prejudice," meaning that they reserved the right to refile the charges.
What they didn't mention is that federal law would make recharging Bonds in the current circumstances virtually impossible. And U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag's office has refused to discuss or explain the prosecutors' decision.
That means that the trial of baseball's all-time home run leader, the centerpiece of the government's campaign against steroids in sports and the athletes who conceal them, has come down to a single conviction for obstruction of justice, based on an isolated passage in Bonds' grand jury testimony, that may or may not hold up on appeal.
The charges that were at the core of the case, that Bonds lied to the grand jury when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs, have been dropped, without a public explanation.
"It's going out with a whimper rather than a bang," said William Gould, a Stanford labor law professor who helped to end the 1994-95 ballplayers' strike when he was chairman of the National Labor Relations Board.
Gould said this week he was "mystified" by the prosecution's decision to drop the perjury charges, announced in a one-sentence court filing Aug. 31 and accepted by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston a day later.

Vindication?

But Rory Little, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco, said prosecutors evidently concluded that a guilty verdict on any charge vindicated their efforts.
"They got a conviction. The judge upheld it. I think they're feeling pretty confident" about defeating Bonds' appeal, Little said. "I don't think they want to retry this case under any circumstances."
The first trial ended April 13 in frustration for anyone seeking clear-cut answers on whether the slugger had lied to a federal grand jury in 2003 when he said he had never knowingly taken steroids or human growth hormone and had never been injected by anyone but his doctor.
With ex-trainer Greg Anderson unwilling to testify about the drug tests he conducted for Bonds - a refusal that has cost Anderson more than a year in jail for contempt - jurors were divided over other witnesses' allegations that Bonds admitted using steroids, showed signs of their use or had been seen entering a room to be injected by Anderson.