The morning session of day three of the Barry Bonds perjury and obstruction of justice trial has come to a close and the jury is off to lunch. Former BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky wrapped up his testimony with some cross examination and re-direct/re-cross. As Novitzky noted he has appeared at numerous trials so it's hard to trip him up. What was intriguing was the way he appeared to get under the skin of Allen Ruby at times. Ruby would ask a question and Novitzky responded with a bit of snark about wanting to ask new questions.
However, Ruby will likely have a lot more success when we get to the cross examination of Bonds' former childhood friend Steve Hoskins. This morning Hoskins began his testimony and began by taking us through the history of his friendship with Barry Bonds. After establishing the basis for their relationship, AUSA Parrella went into the many expected areas of testimony. He discussed some of the physical changes in Bonds (shoe and glove size), his handling of financial arrangements with the various women in Bonds' life, and his involvement in getting information on steroid side effects, particularly those from Winstrol.
Hoskins also discussed his involvement in Bonds' relationship with Greg Anderson. Hoskins testified that he would get cash from Bonds to Anderson. He also was involved in various conversations Bonds had with Anderson. We couldn't hear what Hoskins heard Anderson said because of hearsay rules, but we heard what Hoskins and Bonds said. Additionally we heard about how on multiple occasions Hoskins saw Bonds and Anderson go into a separate room and Anderson would come out with a needle. The idea of course being that he was injecting steroids of some kind into Bonds.
Arguably the highlight, or lowlight, of the morning was hearing Hoskins describe Bonds stating that his butt was sore from the injections.These are the kinds of things that clearly make this must-see TV.
Hoskins will likely begin the afternoon discussing a conversation he taped between himself and Greg Anderson. He wanted to have proof for Bobby Bonds about Barry's steroid use so Bobby would try and convince Barry to stop doping. There were issues of hearsay, but the court has decided to allow in the entire transcript.
Whatever the case, cross examination could bring some fireworks. Ruby got to voir dire Hoskins about the mechanics of the recording and he was already getting some inconsistencies out of him. Hoskins is the start witness for the government so Ruby will want to really destroy his credibility. Unfortunately I won't be texting from the court room this afternoon, but we'll keep an eye on texts. We actually will have @basportsguy in the courtroom, so check out his tweets.
For more on the Barry Bonds Perjury and Obstruction of Justice Trial, check out our updated Trial story stream.