Barry Bonds Legal Arguments Begin Before Trial

Mar 18, 2011, 10:46

Barry Bonds will go on trial beginning on Monday when a jury is selected for his perjury case. Despite the fact that the trial has not even begun though, arguments are already being made in the case from both sides of the case to be heard.

U.S. prosecutors asked the judge in Barry Bonds's upcoming perjury trial to allow as evidence threatening voice mails allegedly left by Bonds to an ex-mistress.

Federal prosecutors argued at a hearing Tuesday the messages would corroborate Kimberly Bell's anticipated testimony that Bonds's "aggressive behavior escalated after he began taking steroids," the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported Wednesday.

Bonds is facing three counts of perjury and one count of obstructing justice on suspicion of lying to a federal grand jury in 2003 about using steroids.

Bonds, 46, who set season and career records for home runs during a stellar career with Pittsburgh and San Francisco from 1986 to 2007, has denied knowingly using steroids.

Last week, Bonds's lawyers moved to bar the voice mails from the trial, arguing the messages and other evidence from Bell will taint the trial with material irrelevant to the charges against the home run king.

Bell is expected to testify Bonds told her he used performance-enhancing drugs and to describe physical changes he underwent as a result of those substances, court papers filed by prosecutors said.

The trial is schedule to begin Monday with jury selection.

Source: UPI