Indictment Sheds New Light on Bonds Case

Nov. 16, 2007— -- Late on the morning of Dec. 4, 2003, Barry Bonds arrived at the Phillip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco and was ushered into the courthouse by the lead investigator in the BALCO steroids case. Bonds was flanked by his lawyer and a bodyguard while cameramen and photographers scrambled to snag a shot of the San Francisco Giants slugger on a day that had been anticipated for months.

Bonds' appearance before the BALCO grand jury represented the climactic moment of a fall that had witnessed some of the world's greatest athletes marching through the doors at 450 Golden Gate Ave., riding an elevator up to the 17th floor and then disappearing into a grand jury room, where, in many cases, they described their explicit use of an array of illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

But Bonds, just as he did every time he stepped into the batter's box, went into the grand jury room with a game plan, one that had been foreshadowed by his lawyer, Michael Rains, in the buildup to his client's appearance. Six weeks before the testimony, Rains was asked by the New York Daily News what Bonds would say when asked if he had taken steroids. Rains said his client would respond, "Well, I didn't know it at the time."

Through three hours of sometimes meandering testimony, Bonds stuck with that message, providing responses such as, "Not that I know of," or "I don't recall," or dismissing his steroid use by saying that his trainer, Greg Anderson, "rubbed some cream on my arm" but never told Bonds it was illegal.

The prosecutors weren't buying, repeatedly pressing Bonds for answers, their voices tinged with sarcasm as they asked how he could have taken drugs without knowing what they were.

At the end of the three hours, prosecutors had pages worth of testimony filled with Bonds' denials. They had showed him Anderson's doping calendars coded with the initials "BB," and informed him about a drug test he had taken in November 2000 that showed he tested positive for testosterone. Bonds never wavered. He said he never used steroids. He never took human growth hormone. Anderson never provided him with performance-enhancers and Bonds was never injected with steroids.