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BARRY BONDS HIT WITH MORE PERJURY CHARGES: Latest indictment brings 14 counts, plus one for obstruction of justice.
*Baseball's home run king Barry Bonds was charged with 14 counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice Tuesday in new indictment charges from a federal grand jury, according to Reuters.
In February, Bonds' lawyers scored a big procedural victory when a federal judge ruled the government had made overly broad arguments in its four perjury counts and one obstruction of justice count by including two or more offenses in a single count. The government had to start from scratch and has now brought a longer array of individual charges.
The feds argue that Bonds lied in 2003 when he told a previous federal grand jury investigating the San Francisco-area BALCO nutrition lab he had never knowingly used performance-enhancing drugs.
"During the criminal investigation, evidence was obtained including positive tests for the presence of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances for Bonds and other professional athletes," the indictment, filed late on Tuesday, alleged.
"Barry Lamar Bonds did corruptly influence, obstruct and impede ... the due administration of justice, by knowingly giving grand jury testimony that was intentionally evasive, false, and misleading."
The updated indictment alleges Bonds lied in saying he never took steroids or other performance enhancing drugs and that to his knowledge his personal trainer Greg Anderson never gave him steroids, a syringe, human growth hormone or testosterone.
"Barry Bonds is innocent," defense attorney Ruby said. "He was innocent of the charges in the dismissed indictment and he's innocent of the charges in the superseding indictment, and any talk of consequences is really a moot point."
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