Roger Clemens charged with perjury in steroid case

[catlover79]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...emens-steroids

WASHINGTON (AP)—A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens for allegedly lying to Congress about using steroids.

Clemens faces charges of obstruction of Congress, making false statements and perjury.

The former Major League baseball pitcher and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, testified under oath at a 2008 hearing before a House committee and contradicted each other about whether Clemens had used the banned substances.

McNamee has told federal agents, baseball investigator George Mitchell and the committee that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

Clemens has maintained that McNamee was lying.

Clemens’ attorney, Rusty Hardin, said by telephone from Houston that he had just learned of the indictment and would wait to decide whether to comment.

[Marvo301]

I always thought "the Rocket" was lying about what "fueled" his success. I'm glad he is now paying the consequences.

[catlover79]

Yes, and I think he also deserves to be banned from MLB, just as Pete Rose was banned for gambling. Is Roger Clemens in the HOF? If he's not, then he doesn't deserve to be inducted. Plain and simple.

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by catlover79

Yes, and I think he also deserves to be banned from MLB, just as Pete Rose was banned for gambling. Is Roger Clemens in the HOF? If he's not, then he doesn't deserve to be inducted. Plain and simple.

I don't think Roger Clemens has been retired long enough to qualify for the HOF. I agree with you. He doesn't deserve to be inducted. He has clearly demonstrated that he doesn't have the character and integrity to be a Hall Of Famer.

[catlover79]

I love this little blurb I read in a book called More Tales From the Tribe Dugout - regarding Cleveland Indians pitching legend, Bob Feller.

"In the press box one night a visiting scribe asked Feller about the ongoing scandal involving players' uses of steroids and growth hormones. 'Did players in your day take anything to make themselves bigger, stronger, faster?' the reporter wanted to know.

"Feller's deadpan response: 'Yes - it was called Wheaties.'"

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by catlover79

I love this little blurb I read in a book called More Tales From the Tribe Dugout - regarding Cleveland Indians pitching legend, Bob Feller.

"In the press box one night a visiting scribe asked Feller about the ongoing scandal involving players' uses of steroids and growth hormones. 'Did players in your day take anything to make themselves bigger, stronger, faster?' the reporter wanted to know.

"Feller's deadpan response: 'Yes - it was called Wheaties.'"

That's a great story!

[catlover79]

God bless Bob Feller. He's a great guy and still loves the organization. Gotta love him.

[catlover79]

I respect a man who believes in the product he endorses!

[Marvo301]

Now there's a man with integrrity and character!

[catlover79]

^ Two things Roger Clemens sorely lacks!!

[Marvo301]

Originally Posted by catlover79

^ Two things Roger Clemens sorely lacks!!

He sure does. In fact I heard on the radio today that Roger Clemens is still denying that he used steroids.

[catlover79]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/R...on-time-081910

Updated Aug 20, 2010 12:44 AM ET

I predict that Roger Clemens will spend more than a year of his life in a federal prison. Here’s why.

The federal government indicted him today on six counts:

1. Two counts of perjury, for falsely testifying under oath at a House Committee hearing Feb. 13, 2008 that (1) Brian McNamee, his trainer, never gave him HGH, and (2) he had “never taken steroids.”

2. Three counts of falsely telling staff members of that Committee in a deposition under oath eight days before the hearing that (1) he had never used HGH, (2) he had never used steroids, and (3) McNamee gave him injections of vitamin B12 (the indictment says McNamee never gave him any B12 shots).

3. One count of obstruction of Congress, for trying to obstruct the Committee’s investigation by making 15 false statements to the Committee, including those listed above.

Each of these counts carries a sentence of 0-5 years in prison, but under the federal sentencing guidelines, the reality is that if he’s convicted of at least one of the perjury counts — regardless of whether he’s convicted of one or more of the other counts — he will receive a sentence of 15 to 21 months in prison. And under federal law, even if he’s a very good boy in prison (an assumption Mike Piazza would never make), he will have to serve a minimum of 85 percent of his sentence. So that works out to about 13-18 months in prison.

As of February 2008, the Committee (that’s the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, if you’re keeping score) had compiled a wealth of evidence that Clemens had lied under oath. In the 2 1/2 years since, additional evidence that he lied has been made public. Undoubtedly the government has even more evidence that we don’t know about yet.

Shortly after the hearing, the evidence the Committee compiled led Congressmen Henry Waxman (chairman of the Committee and a Democrat) and Tom Davis (the Republican Ranking Member) to jointly ask the Attorney General of the United States in writing to investigate whether Clemens committed perjury. I think at that point the writing was on the wall, because, during the hearing, in a revolting display of partisan politics, the Democrats generally took the position that McNamee was telling the truth when he said he gave Clemens HGH and steroids, while the Republicans generally took the position that Clemens was telling the truth when he said McNamee had not done so. Yet after the hearing, Waxman and Davis, representing both parties, asked the Attorney General to investigate whether Clemens had lied but did not ask him to investigate whether McNamee had lied.

According to a report prepared by Waxman’s staff at that time, here’s the key evidence that already existed against Clemens:

1. Most importantly, this was not a “he said, he said” situation: Andy Pettitte’s testimony corroborated McNamee’s, despite the fact that Pettitte is and was a good friend of Clemens. Pettitte testified under oath in a deposition and affidavit (he did not testify at the hearing) that in 1999 or 2000, Clemens told him he had used HGH. Then, in 2005, according to Pettitte’s testimony, he asked Clemens what he would say if a reporter asked him whether he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens asked what Pettitte meant, and Pettitte reminded Clemens that Clemens had told him he had used HGH. Clemens responded by saying that Pettitte must have misunderstood and that what Clemens had said was that his wife Debbie had used HGH.

But there’s just one little problem: both Clemens and McNamee told the Committee that Debbie Clemens didn’t use HGH until 2002 or 2003, so Clemens couldn’t have told Pettitte in 1999 or 2000 that his wife had used HGH. And, to top it all off, Pettitte’s wife, Laura, submitted an affidavit to the Committee in which she said that Andy told her about each of the two conversations with Clemens at the time they took place. Plus, Pettitte and McNamee both testified that they had two conversations with each other in which they discussed Clemens’ use of HGH and steroids.

2. McNamee testified that he injected Clemens, Pettitte, and Chuck Knoblauch with HGH. Pettitte testified that McNamee injected him with HGH. Knoblauch told the Committee in an interview (in which a lie would have been a crime) that McNamee injected him with HGH. In the words of the staff report: “There is little reason to believe that Mr. McNamee would provide truthful testimony about Mr. Pettitte and Mr. Knoblauch, but false testimony about Mr. Clemens.”

3. Clemens developed a large abscess (a “palpable mass,” if you’re interested) in his buttocks in 1998 when he played for the Blue Jays. McNamee said in a 2007 phone call taped by Clemens’ investigators that the abscess was from steroid injections. Clemens testified it was probably due to B12 injections. Various medical authorities, including Ron Taylor, who won a World Series ring with the Mets in 1969 and was the Blue Jays’ team doctor in 1998, told the Committee that they had never seen a palpable mass form in response to B12 injections, despite having administered many such injections (in Taylor’s case, almost 1,000). And military doctor Mark Murphey told the Committee that the MRI performed on Clemens’ posterior was more consistent with steroid injections than B12 injections. I think it’s safe to assume that over the past 2 1/2 years, the government has beefed up this medical evidence.

Now here’s what’s come to light since the time of the hearings: in early 2009, The New York Times and the Washington Post reported that McNamee had saved syringes, vials, and gauze pads that he said he used when he injected Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs, and that the government then received results of tests that showed both Clemens’ DNA and performance-enhancing drugs on these materials.

Also, the grand jury investigating Clemens subpoenaed various people associated with a Houston-area gym in an effort to determine how Clemens received steroids.

Given how important this case is to the government — its press release today stressed that it was sending a “message” to people who testify falsely before Congress that “there will be consequences” — and given that the government must prove Clemens’ guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a widely publicized case in which an acquittal would be deeply embarrassing, I think it’s fair to assume that the feds have developed additional evidence against Clemens that we just don’t know about yet.

That’s why I believe the jury will conclude, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Clemens is guilty of perjury. To conclude otherwise would be to conclude that there is a reasonable possibility that McNamee and Pettitte (and his wife) lied under oath, despite the fact that the Pettittes had no reason to do so, and that McNamee told the truth about Pettitte and Knoblauch but lied under oath about Clemens, and that Pettitte and McNamee lied about their two conversations with each other, and that B12 shots rather than steroid shots caused a large abscess in Clemens’ derriere despite medical evidence to the contrary, and that Clemens’ DNA and performance-enhancing drugs both ended up on McNamee’s injection paraphernalia but McNamee didn’t inject Clemens with performance-enhancing drugs. I just don’t think that’s going to happen.

Oh, and one more thing: the Baseball Hall of Fame criteria include personal integrity. So Clemens can kiss that goodbye.

Don’t you wish you had taken the Fifth, Roger?

[catlover79]

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/r...e-been-avoided

Updated Aug 19, 2010 11:44 PM ET

Don't know about the Hall of Fame, but the Hall of Indictments sure is growing.

Barry Bonds, now Roger Clemens.

Both indicted for perjury, a charge that is difficult to prove. Both innocent until proven guilty. Yet, both permanently stained by their alleged activities — and by their arrogance.

My initial reaction to Thursday's news about Clemens was to yawn, knowing that Bonds was indicted on Nov. 19, 2007 and will not face trial until March 2011.

I'm guessing most fans will yawn, either because A) they are no longer shocked by such developments or B) they believe that the government has better things to do than prosecute alleged users of illegal performance-enhancing drugs, no matter how famous.

I get it. I'm tired of writing about this crap. You're tired of reading it. But let's not treat this news like it's some innocuous tweet about a Pittsburgh Pirates roster move. Bonds was accused of lying to a grand jury. Clemens is accused of lying to Congress. Serious stuff.

I don't have the expertise to compare the cases. I wouldn't even try. But I know this much: Both Bonds and Clemens could have avoided this path. Instead, both treated the government as if it were just another inferior opponent.

Both were too preoccupied with protecting their legacies — and banking on the competitive edge that made them great in the first place — to see the forest for the trees.

It did not have to be this way. Bonds and Clemens could have admitted to some form of drug use, asked for forgiveness and moved on. Remember, they were not indicted for using PEDs; they were indicted for allegedly lying about it.

Ask Alex Rodriguez, Andy Pettitte and a host of others — the Official Steroid Confessional is now as much part of the game as the Official Baseball Rules.

I know, I know — no two situations are analogous. A-Rod had nowhere to hide after Sports Illustrated revealed his steroid use. Pettitte was a much lesser name and more likable figure; fans wanted to forgive him.

Yet, Bonds and Clemens are less sympathetic than even A-Rod, who often comes off as phony, but is more self-absorbed than anything else. From Bonds and Clemens, you get the same hubris, the same antagonism, the same aggressive sense of entitlement. No one in Clemens’ camp even saw the indictment coming, a troubling sign on several levels.

Clemens, like Bonds, clearly believed he was bullet-proof — he actually requested to testify before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, seeking to clear his name. Someone should have talked him out of it. But who could ever talk Roger Clemens out of anything?

I believe that both Bonds and Clemens used steroids, along with hundreds of other athletes in virtually every sport. Proceeding under that assumption, I believe that Bonds knew he was lying to the grand jury in the BALCO trial, but thought he could get away with it.

Clemens is not nearly as bright as Bonds, far less calculating, far more delusional. Indeed, Clemens strikes me as the type who worked himself into such a state, he actually believed his lies. Inject, deny, inject, deny.

So, away we go. Bonds' former trainer, Greg Anderson, went to jail rather than testify against him. Clemens' former trainer, Brian McNamee, is expected to take the opposite position, serving as the government's star witness.

What does it all mean? Check back in a few years, if this sucker ever makes it to trial. Bonds is still waiting, still stewing. But in the Hall of Indictments, he no longer is alone.

[Marvo301]

Roger Clemens arrogance which served him well as a professional athlete has been and will continue to be his downfall in this matter. You may be able to stare down a batter but you can't stare down congress!

[catlover79]

Originally Posted by Marvo301

Roger Clemens arrogance which served him well as a professional athlete has been and will continue to be his downfall in this matter. You may be able to stare down a batter but you can't stare down congress!

Kind of like "you can't fight City Hall", just on a MUCH larger scale.