Barry Bonds is on trial for telling a 2003 grand jury he never knowingly used anabolic steroids. In opening statements, prosecutors said they would present evidence to prove it's "ridiculous and unbelievable" that he didn't know what he was taking. That wording was struck from the record after an objection from Bonds' lawyer.
Prosecutors also told jurors Bonds could have avoided an indictment, since he was given immunity for his grand jury testimony under one condition. All he had to do was tell the truth, but he couldn't do that said prosecutor Matt Parrella and the evidence will show that he planned not to do it.
But Bonds' team told the jury he thought a designer steroid known as "the clear" was flaxseed oil. Bonds' defense attorney Allen Ruby said, "He didn't know what it was. When Barry was getting 'the clear' nobody knew what it was."
Also on Tuesday, Bonds' former trainer and childhood friend Greg Anderson was called to testify against Bonds and refused again.
"Clearly somebody who has already done over 18 months on the various times he's gone in is not going to be affected by two weeks, so from a pure legal standpoint, I think it's the theater of the absurd," said Mark Geragos, Anderson's lawyer.
Geragos says sending Anderson to prison goes beyond legal bounds designed to convince someone to testify and crosses over into punishment, which is not allowed in this situation. And he said Anderson is not refusing to testify to protect Bonds, but because feels prosecutors have lied to him.
"They didn't play fair. He's not going to play their game. It's as simple as that," said Geragos.
ABC7 legal analyst Dean Johnson thinks there might be another reason.
"If I were one of his defense attorneys, I would be pointing the finger at Greg Anderson saying, 'This is the man who slipped the steroids to Barry Bonds. This is the man who ruined baseball.' And Anderson doesn't want to have that label placed on him," said Johnson.
Former IRS Agentjeff Novitsky was the first witness to take the stand on Tuesday, testifying about evidence collected in the BALCO case.
The trial continues on Wednesday with Bonds former business partner Steve Hoskins who is scheduled to testify.
