16 - The Michigan Daily - Monday, July 17, 2006 SPORTS
Bonds may face indictment


(AP) - Barry Bonds's legal team
is preparing for the San Francisco
slugger to be indicted as soon as
next week and has begun plotting his
defense.
Attorney Laura Enos told The
Associated Press on Friday that
ionds, second on the career home
run list, could be charged with tax
evasion and perjury.
Enos, Bonds's personal attor-
ney, also said the lawyers believe
the grand jury investigating the star
player will expire next Thursday.
"We are very prepared," Enos said.
"We have excellent tax records and
we are very comfortable that he has
Grot shortchanged the government at
all."
Also Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals refused to free
Bonds' personal trainer, Greg Ander-
son, from prison. A federal judge on
July 5 ordered Anderson jailed until
he agreed to testify before the grand
jury investigating Bonds.
Anderson was one of five people
convicted in the Bay Area Laborato-
ry Co-Operative scandal. The Burl-
ingame-based nutritional supplement
company was exposed as a steroid
laboratory for top athletes.
The grand jury is probing Bonds
for allegedly lying to a different
grand jury that led to Anderson's
conviction.
Bonds testified in 2003 that he
never knowingly used performance-
enhancing drugs and said Ander-

son had given him flaxseed oil and
arthritis balm, not steroids.
The BALCO probe netted calen-
dars and other documents connecting
Bonds to the lab.
Former girlfriend Kimberly Bell
is a key witness in the case and has
testified that Bonds told her of his
steroid use and flew into rages she
attributed to steroid use, according to
grand jury testimony obtained by the
San Francisco Chronicle.
Enos said Bonds denies those alle-
gations and will argue that Bell's tes-
timony amounts to "pillow talk."
"It's a 'he said, she said' thing,"
Enos said.
The grand jury also is believed to
be investigating Bonds for tax eva-
sion in connection with cash he alleg-
edly gave Bell to buy a house. The
money came from sales of Bonds's
signatures on baseball memorabilia,
and the income allegedly was not
reported to the IRS.
Enos said that claim - based upon
the ex-girlfriend's testimony and
the allegations of childhood friend
and former business partner Steve
Hoskins - is untrue. Enos said
Hoskins gave Bell the cash to curry
favor with Bonds and to thank the
slugger for helping him become rich
by putting him in charge of a lucra-
tive memorabilia business.
Enos said Hoskins also bought
Bonds a $350,000 Bentley Rolls
Royce, which she said Bonds paid
$150,000 in gift taxes.

"The guy without Barry didn't
have a penny," Enos said.
Hoskins recently has surfaced as
another key government witness in
the investigation of Bonds. He was a
boyhood friend who went into busi-
ness with the baseball star, selling
such memorabilia as signed jerseys,
bats and baseball cards. The two had
a falling out in 2003, which Enos
said was over Bonds's accusations
that Hoskins forged the slugger's sig-
nature on at least two endorsement
contracts and sold Bonds's gear with-
out his permission.
Hoskins' lawyer, Michael Cardoza,
said he was "laughing" at Bonds's
defense.
"I'm laughing because I love this
defense. Tell them to think of a bet-
ter story," he said. "Tell them to put
that defense on and to keep believing
their client. They're going to get it
shoved down their throats."
Bonds hit 12 home runs in the first
half of this season to give him 720
for his career, 35 from tying Hank
Aaron's record of 755. Bonds passed
Babe Ruth and moved into second
place on the career list with No. 715
on May 28.
He's batting .249 this season with
38 RBIs, and has missed 20 games
because of knee problems.
If charged with perjury and con-
victed, he could face up to five years
in prison. He could face another five
years if charged and convicted of
money laundering.

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Barry Bonds could be cleared from charges of perjury and tax evasion.


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