The Roger Clemens Trial .. Is it a waste of Tax Payers dollars.
Your government failed you today.
There's no other way to put it. For almost three years, federal investigators have been building a perjury case against Roger Clemens, the seven-time Cy Young award winner who told a Congressional committee, under oath in a nationally televised 2008 hearing, that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. They gathered DNA evidence that allegedly tied Clemens to syringes saved by his former trainer, Brian McNamee, who claims he injected Clemens with steroids. The government was set to call Andy Pettitte, Clemens' former teammate and best friend. In a sworn affidavit, Pettitte said that Clemens told him that he had used human growth hormone. Why would Pettitte ever tell a damning lie, under oath, about his buddy Clemens? Pettitte's testimony would be devastating.
But we won't hear it — at least for another few months. After a week's worth of jury selection in the case of U.S. v Roger Clemens, and one full day of testimony, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton declared a mistrial because of a prosecutorial goof. In front of the jury, the government played video from the 2008 hearing in which Rep. Elijah Cummings quotes from an affidavit provided by Laura Pettitte, Andy's wife, which backed up her husband's account of Clemens' drug use. The problem: Walton had ruled that Laura Pettitte's hearsay statements were inadmissible at trial.
A furious Walton stopped the proceedings, kicked the jury out of the room, and then scolded the prosecutors, Steven Durham and Daniel Butler. “I don't see how I un-ring the bell,” Walton said.“I think that a first-year law student would know that you can't bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence."
He called the jury back, and declared a mistrial. Walton apologized to the jury. "We've expended a lot of your taxpayers' money to reach this point," Walton said, according to @NYDNSportsIteam, the sports investigative unit for the New York Daily News. A hearing to determine whether the government can retry the case was set for Sept. 2. If the judge rules that double jeopardy applies, Clemens will walk, thanks to a glitch.
And a retrial will just fatten an expensive bill. The public appetite for the government steroid investigations of athletes like Barry Bonds, Lane Armstrong, and Clemens is waning. Most fans have moved on. And now that the government has gone broke, every taxpayer expenditure is scrutinized. Every penny counts. The apathy has turned to anger.
After this government mishap, that anger may turn into righteous rage. President Obama and the Republican leadership are fighting over ways to keep the country solvent. The timing of this screwup is terrible. It's the courtroom equivalent of Bill Buckner and Fred "Bonehead" Merkle, combined.
2005: Jose Canseco releases a best-selling book saying that Astros pitcher Roger Clemens once joked about taking a "B-12" shot, which was baseball code for steroids at the time. But Canseco says he has no evidence Clemens ever actually used the performance-enhancing substance.
Dec. 13, 2007: A 409-page report by former Senate majority leader George Mitchell accuses Clemens and Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte, along with 75 other current or former baseball players, of taking performance-enhancing drugs. The Mitchell Report, as it became ominously known, said Clemens and Pettitte were injected with the drugs by former trainer Brian McNamee.
Dec. 15, 2007: Pettitte admits publicly that he used human growth hormone for two days in 2002 to speed up the healing of his injured elbow, but denies ever using steroids.
Dec. 18, 2007: Clemens denies ever using steroids, human growth hormone or any other banned substance, calling those substances "a dangerous and destructive shortcut that no athlete should ever take."
Jan. 6, 2008: Clemens sues McNamee for defamation. Meanwhile, the CBS TV program 60 Minutes airs an interview with Clemens in which he says McNamee injected him with vitamin B-12 and the painkiller lidocaine but never with testosterone, human growth hormone or anabolic steroids.
Jan. 15, 2008: Before a standing-room-only crowd during a congressional House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, Mitchell strongly endorses the veracity of McNamee's allegations that Clemens had used banned substances.
Feb. 5, 2008: During a closed-door, under-oath interrogation before congressional investigators, Clemens says he never took steroids or human growth hormone.
Feb. 6, 2008: McNamee's lawyers reveal they gave federal prosecutors physical evidence — including syringes, empty bottles and gauze — that they say proves Clemens used performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens' lawyers dismiss McNamee as "a troubled man who is obsessed with doing everything possible to destroy Roger Clemens."
Feb. 8, 2008: McNamee tells congressional investigators he also injected Clemens' wife, Debbie, with human growth hormone at her husband's direction for a 2003 Sports Illustrated photo shoot. Clemens' attorney dismisses the allegation as a "colossal lie."
Feb. 11, 2008: A congressman reveals Pettitte will not testify before Congress because he gave an affidavit supporting McNamee's claims.
Feb. 13, 2008: Clemens testifies before the congressional committee, denying he ever used illicit drugs during his career. McNamee, at the other end of the witness table, tells the panel the evidence against Clemens is "100 percent authentic." Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., said Pettitte's testimony that Clemens had acknowledged using HGH convinced him that Clemens was lying. Clemens countered that Pettitte was not remembering things correctly. "I think Andy has misheard. I think he misremembers," Clemens said.
Late February 2008: Congress asks the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation into whether Clemens lied under oath during his testimony.
January 2009: A federal grand jury is convened to determine whether Clemens should be indicted on charges of lying under oath to Congress.
Feb. 3, 2009: Tests link Clemens' DNA to blood in syringes that McNamee says he used to inject the pitcher with performance-enhancing drugs, according to a Washington Post report.
Feb. 12, 2009: A Houston federal judge dismisses most of Clemens' defamation lawsuit against McNamee, finding McNamee had immunity from being sued for comments he made about Clemens to Mitchell's investigators.
March 2009: Federal investigators find performance-enhancing substances on the drug paraphernalia that McNamee said he used to inject Clemens.
Aug. 12, 2010: A federal appeals court refuses to reinstate Clemens' defamation lawsuit against McNamee.
Aug. 19, 2010: A federal grand jury hands down a six-count indictment against Clemens, charging he obstructed a congressional inquiry with false statements, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone. The indictment says that he lied and committed perjury.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bb/7160799.html#ixzz1SZbSp6nd
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