A federal judge on Friday unsealed Barry Bond’s December 2003 grand jury testimony, making public what the reigning home run king said about his steroid use.
“U.S. District Judge Susan Illston signed an order Friday making Bonds' testimony public after ordering prosecutors to amend Bonds' indictment so each of the five counts against him don't cite multiple allegedly false statements. Prosecutors originally accused Bonds of lying 19 different times during his grand jury appearance,” the Associated Press reported.
“Illston agreed with Bonds' attorney Dennis Riordan on Friday that prosecutors must edit out many of the alleged lies or seek a new indictment, which could contain more charges.”
During the 2003 grand jury proceedings, prosecutors showed Bonds a positive drug test for steroids for a player named “Barry B.” The slugger told prosecutors he had never seen those results before.
Federal investigators also recovered Bonds’ alleged “doping calendar” kept by trainer Greg Anderson, who spent a year in prison for refusing to cooperate with authorities in connection with the case.
According to the AP, “Anderson, who was released after Bonds was indicted, is expected to be called to testify if Bonds' case goes to trial. Anderson maintains he will refuse to testify if ordered, meaning he could return to prison.”
Bonds was not required to be in attendance for Friday’s ruling and does not have to appear at the next court date either.
Here are some excerpts from Bonds' 2003 testimony, obtained by Sports Illustrated:
Q. Okay. Had you ever taken flax seed oil, by the way, before?
A. I never asked Greg. When he said it was flax seed oil, I just said: "Whatever.'' It was in the ballpark.
Q. Right.
A. You know, in front of everybody. I mean, all the reporters, my teammates. I mean, they all saw it. I didn't hide it. I didn't hide -- I didn't hide anything.
I mean, I didn't question anything when he -- you know, if I'm at the ballpark or something -- you know, trainers come up to me and say: "Hey Barry, try this.'' I don't really question it, move on. You know?
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Q. Did you notice after you took it that it had any affect -- appeared to you to have any affect on you at all?
A. I -- I told him: "It's not doing crap. I'm still in pain. I'm still feeling the pain.''
Q. You, yourself --
A. I still felt fatigued and had a heart condition in Arizona. It's not working.
Q. And other than what Mr. Anderson told you, you didn't know what this substance consisted of at all?
Q. No. I had no reason to doubt him. We were in the ballpark, inside the stadium. You know, if I was somewhere else, maybe, I probably would have -- I'm not that way, sir. Sorry. I'm not the type of person to pry into people's business. And I really believe my friends.
Q. Well, let me ask you this, if Mr. Anderson came to you at the ballpark with some other substance, whatever it is, if he asked you to take some other substance and said it was some other type of oil, whatever he asked you to take, would you take it?
A. I would trust that he wouldn't do anything to hurt me.
Q. Okay. But you wouldn't ask any further questions. You'd just basically -- because he's your friend, if he asked you to take it, you would take it?
A. He would do the same thing for me.
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Q. And what were the results or the effects of this lotion? Did you find it helpful to you?
A. I thought it was -- oops.
Q. I'm sorry?
A. Oops. I -- I almost said something.
I thought it was really bad. I didn't think it did anything, to be honest with you. I didn't think it did anything.
Q. Any negative side effects?
A. I still felt the pain.
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Q. Did Greg ever talk to you about this cream actually being a steroid cream that would, you know, conceal steroids or testosterone in your blood, did Greg ever ask -- tell you about that?
A. No, no.
Q. Okay. Let me ask you about a few other things -- oh, I'm sorry, one more thing.
Did you ever talk to Victor Conte about this lotion or this cream?
A. No. I have -- like I said, I only talked to Victor Conte when I saw him. I never talked to Victor Conte any time other than that, that I can recall, ever.
Q. Did Greg tell you where he was getting that lotion or that cream from?
A. No. But I assume it was BALCO.
Q. And again, about this cream, why would you assume it was from BALCO?
A. Because they were friends, you know.
Q. They were friends. But of course, it wasn't just because they were friends, it was because BALCO made stuff or provided stuff, I mean --
A. I never been in BALCO long enough to know anything they did. I was in the front room, the front of the building, okay? I had my personal doctor do my blood. That's it. I went to the back to a weight room to do an ad for them. I can't tell you what's in that building because I don't know.
Q. How many times have you been into BALCO?
A. Two to three times at the max.
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Q. Just to follow-up before I go on to my other thing, have you ever yourself injected yourself with anything that Greg Anderson gave you?
A. I'm not that talented, no.
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Q. And again, just to be clear, and then I'll leave it, but he never gave you anything that you understood to be human growth hormone? Did he ever give you anything like that?
A. No.
Q. And, again, I guess we've covered this, but -- and did he ever give you anything that he told you had to be taken with a needle or syringe?
A. Greg wouldn't do that. He knows I'm against that stuff. So, he would never come up to me -- he would never jeopardize our friendship like that.
