The Barry Bonds perjury and obstruction of justice trial deviated from its expected wrap-up this week as the weekend brought delays and a potentially explosive revelation. The jury was dismissed for the entire day because juror number nine was suffering from kidney stones. He visited his doctor and received tylenol with codeine. Tomorrow the trial will begin with either a doped up juror number nine or one of the two alternate jurors.
More importantly though, the government revealed to the court that Steve Hoskins had informed them he had discovered a taped conversation with Dr. Arthur Ting. In this conversation there are allegedly discussions steroids, which would directly contradict Dr. Ting’s testimony last week that he never discussed specific steroid use.
Naturally the defense has some issues with the tape both in terms of the quality and also the late discovery. If this tape is actually allowed in, it’s possible it could breathe new life into the prosecution’s otherwise withering case. It wouldn’t necessarily secure more guilty verdicts, but it raises serious question marks about Dr Ting’s testimony. Of course, if this has steroid discussions, that means we get another date with Steve Hoskins who thus far has been arguably the worst witness in the history of trials.
The prosecution was originally planning on resting their case following testimony from Dr. Don Catlin of the UCLA Laboratory and the reading of Bonds’ grand jury testimony into the official record. Now I’d have to imagine we’ve got at least another day or two added to the trial, not including the missed day today. Things are officially interesting once again.