Closing Arguments In Bonds Case, Prosecutor Said Bonds Lied

 A prosecutor told a federal jury in San Francisco today that Barry Bonds lied to a grand jury in 2003 because he had "a powerful secret" -- a secret that he was using steroids to build his home-run records.

"All he had do to was tell the truth," prosecutor Jeff Nedrow told the jury in the court of U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in his closing argument in the three-week trial.

Nedrow said, "The reason was the powerful secret he had been using steroids and human growth hormone in connection with his profession as a professional athlete.

"He had concerns it would taint his accomplishments he had achieved during his career," Nedrow said.

Bonds, 46, is on trial on charges of obstructing justice and telling three lies in 2003 testimony before a grand jury that was investigating sports drug distribution by the Burlingame-based Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, or BALCO.

The three alleged lies were his statements that he never knowingly received steroids or human growth hormone from his trainer Greg Anderson, or received any kind of injection from him.

The case is expected to go to the jury this afternoon after completion of defense closing arguments and a prosecution rebuttal.

Defense attorney Allen Ruby began his closing by declaring, "In this case, the government has brought you no -- zero -- evidence on an essential element of this prosecution."

That element, Ruby said, was whether Bonds' 2003 testimony was relevant to the grand jury's investigation. Ruby said prosecutors never explained during the trial how the grand jury worked.

The defense attorney also contended that prosecution witnesses lacked credibility.

"We respectfully submit that they have presented witnesses who are not to be believed," he said.

Because Anderson refused to testify -- and was jailed for contempt of court -- prosecutors relied mainly on circumstantial evidence from former associates of Bonds to try to prove that he knowingly took the drugs.

Bonds told the grand jury he took two substances later identified as designer steroids, but said he didn't know they were steroids.

--Bay City News