Barry Bonds Developments: Somethings You Just Can't Make Up About the Law.
On Friday, the US Appeals Court ruled that the prosecutors in the Barry Bonds test cannot use certain evidence, including calendars showing the cycling on and off of steroids, because then documents were created by Bond's trainer Greg Anderson. Here's the problem, Anderson won't testify against Bonds. In fact, Anderson has spend much of the last 5 years in jail for failing to give evidence against Bonds. Anderson has taken loyalty to a new high or low, depending on how you view it.
Unfortunately, the Court found that Anderson is only person who can "authenticate" the calendars. At a trial, documents must be properly authenticated before they can be admitted to evidence and shown to a jury. Authentication is a fancy way of a having a person (usually who created the document) vouch for the correctness of a piece of evidence and tell the court it is accurate and not changed or doctored. Since Anderson won't authenticate the documents against Bonds, they can't go into to evidence.
The government must now scramble to get other evidence together against Bonds. The prosecution has stated that it intends to try to call Anderson at trial, if the pattern holds, Anderson will not testify and go back to jail. The Bonds' jury will then decide if he gets any company.
My name is Christopher Fusco. I am the managing partner of Callahan & Fusco, LLC with offices in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.