Sports In the Courts Blog : New York Attorneys & Lawyers Specializing in Sports Law & Legal Analysis

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Former Red Sox Slugger Manny Ramirez was arrested tonight on charges of domestic battery.  Ramirez reportedly was involved in an altercation with his wife Juliana Ramirez some time before 7 p.m. Monday night.  According to the police report, Ramirez slapped his wife in the face causing her to hit her head off of the headboard of their bed.  Ramirez denied striking his wife, claiming he grabbed her by the shoulders and shrugged her, which was his take on her hitting her head.  

Ramirez has been somewhat quiet since his steroid driven retirement from Major League Baseball in April.  

Roid Rage?  Who knows.  The one thing everyone can agree on is Manny will always be unpredictable in his actions.

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Finally, after about a week of jury selection, a jury has been chosen to serve in the case of the United States of America v. Roger Clemens. According to the court, opening statements are to begin today.

Opening statements, unlike closing arguments, are not supposed to be about fireworks. An opening statement is designed to be a calmly delivered road map of the evidence an attorney expects the jury to hear.

Opening statements rarely win cases but they can lost them. If a lawyer tells a jury about the evidence that he expects them to hear and it doesn't happen, disaster can strike. Juries often punish lawyers (and their clients) who don't keep their promises and don't deliver the goods.

So when you open, be careful that you don't over-promise and that your word is good.

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In the latest round of court filings, former Red Sox and Yankees Roger Clemens (through his attorneys) protested to the judge that the prosecution had thrown the “kitchen sink” of charges against him. As a former prosecutor, I can say he may have a legitimate grip but that’s the way the criminal process works.

As a prosecutor, you want to indict (or charge) a criminal defendant with as many charges as possible (and that can survive a motion to dismiss). For example, if you have a homicide case that involved a robbery, you would charge murder, felony murder, manslaughter, robbery, grand larceny (if appropriate) and criminal possession of a weapon.

For the prosecution the use of “overcharging” provides useful factors. Remember the prosecution has the burden of proof against a criminal defendant, like Clemens. A multitude of charges will allow a prosecutor to control two important options. First, if a trial or prosecution is going badly, the more serious charges can be dismissed and a plea bargain can be offered to lesser charges. The second is one of simple odds, the more charges submitted to a jury to determine, the higher the chance that they will return a verdict of guilty.

Those are the reasons why the Rocket got the kitchen sink.

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Due to the "voluminous" evidence that has been produced in the Roger Clemens investigation, a judge has pushed back the trial to July.

Prosecutors have produced over 54,000 pages of evidence.  The prosecution is required to provide Clemens' attorney Rusty Hardin with all documents for review prior to trial.  Hardin said he needed additional time to review the documents and retain experts to examine the scientific portion of the findings.  Hardin also said he is having difficulty obtaining materials from MLB investigator George Mitchell and the congressional panel.  Attorney-client privilege issues are preventing the production of the documents to Hardin.  Hardin will request a subpoena for the materials.

The Clemens trial was scheduled to begin in April, and has now been pushed back to July.  Hardin originally requested the trial be delayed until September, but prosecutor Steve Durham asked for it to only be put off until June.  Judge Walton told Clemens' legal team jury selection will start on July 6th.  

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Yesterday, former Red Sox and Yankee star pitcher entered a plea of not guilty to federal perjury and obstruction of Congress charges. This story was widely reported but little was mentioned about what happens with Clemens' case between now and the April 5, 2011 trial date.

Well, it may not be front page news but the defense now gets to conduct document discovery from the prosecution. Until this moment, the defense likely possessed very few official reports held by the government, but this is about to radically change.

Clemens' defensive team is basically entitled to a copy of the prosecutor's file. This means the defense will now have access to investigative reports, police reports, witness statements, and grand jury testimony. This information is critical for the defense lawyers to develop their plan of attack against the government's case. However, these documents should also go a long way in showing how strong the prosecution's case against the Rocket may be.

We know Clemens has turned down a plea bargain that didn't carry jail time. After Roger reviews the "care package" he is about to get from the Feds, I wonder if he will have any second thoughts. 

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With all the fast and furious news about former Red Sox, Astro, Blue Jay and Yankee star pitcher Roger Clemens being indicted on perjury charges, we wanted to take a moment to calm down and reflect. Once again, let's repeat that Clemens has been found guilty of nothing and maintains his innocence of all of the federal felony charges against him. But, upon some thinking, we wonder if he knows that the count against him is 0 and 2. Let's go to the instant legal replay.

Strike One: Clemens, under no obligation (and no subpoena) chose to testify in front of Congress where he story fell apart after his former trainer, Brian McNamee swore that no only did he inject Clemens with steroids, he even kept the needles. Making it worse for Clemens, two-time Astro and Yankee pitcher Andy Pettite (another admitted PED user) confirmed McNamee's account and also said Clemens admitted to him that he used PED's.

Strike Two: Clemens sues McNamee for defamination. The Rocket's case quickly backfires when a judge decided that it had no merit and was dismissed faster then you can say "no Hall of Fame."

And the Wind-Up: Clemens, throwing caution to the wind, calls a Boston radio station to give an interview (besides his tweets) and says that he will have "his day" in court. That is Clemens' right but their is a chance he will lose. Given, Clemens recent history in legal proceedings and the proof the government may have, a called Strike Three could mean that he will be the best player on the federal prison's softball team (for at leat 15 to 21 months).  

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Well, its been less then a day since former New York Yankee and Boston Red Sox star pitcher, Roger Clemens, was indicted on 15 different counts of perjury, obstructing the Congress of the United States and interfering with a Congressional investigation and already Clemens' defense team is putting out a lot of questionable information (an some usual nonsense). So let's do a little legal housekeeping.

First, although every criminal defense attorney says it (and the Clemens team is no exception), an indictment is not "meaningless" and not "proof of nothing." A felony indictment is proof that a grand jury found "reasonable cause" to believe that a crime was committed and Clemens is the one who did it. While this is not the "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" needed for a conviction, it is all the proof required to bring Clemens to trial. An indictment is not "meaningless" because it becomes the "charging instrument" to which Clemens must enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

Second, Clemens' lawyers are suggesting that this prosecution is on something of a "witch hunt" or saga against their client. Whether Clemens is guilty or not will not be decided for a long time, but make no mistake, the Democratic AND Republican Congressman who heard Clemens' testimony and his former trainer, Brian McNamee's testimony believed Clemens had lied. In a era when the political parties can't agree on the day of the week, the Congressional request for the US Attorney to investigate Clemens for perjury came for BOTH parties.

Lastly, Clemens is tweeting about his innocence. In my opinion, this is beyond reckless and shows that Clemens is out of control. The government is collecting everything he is writing and will try to use any mistake he may make against him.

Roger, this is what you have lawyers for, stop tweeting, facebooking and talking and start getting ready for the fight of your life.  

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