New York, New Jersey, Connecticut News: Clemens

Saturday, 28 April 2012

Clemens prosecutors sought to preclude evidence

In this Feb. 13, 2008 file photo, former New York Yankees baseball pitcher Roger Clemens, left, listens to the testimony of his former personal trainer Brian McNamee, right, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The New York Times reported on its website Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010, that federal authorities have decided to indict Roger Clemens on charges of making false statements to Congress about his use of performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, testified under oath at a hearing before a House committee and contradicted each other about whether Clemens had used the banned substances. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)

FREDERIC J. FROMMERWASHINGTON -- A motion partially unsealed late Friday shows that prosecutors in the Roger Clemens case sought to keep out allegations made against the government's key witness by his ex-wife.

In the motion, prosecutors urge the judge to prevent the former star pitcher from using the damaging information concerning the witness, Brian McNamee - including that as a police officer, McNamee once placed a beer can in a dead woman's hand at a crime scene. The prosecutors argue the information is irrelevant to the trial.

The government had originally filed the motion under seal last month, arguing its contents would subject potential jurors to prejudicial information about McNamee.

In a pretrial hearing, an attorney representing The Associated Press and The New York Times urged U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to unseal the motion. He declined to do so, saying he shared the prosecutors' fears that the information, if publicly disclosed, would complicate getting an impartial jury.

But when the jury was picked, Walton told the prosecutors that they would have to unseal information in the motion that wasn't already sealed in the New York divorce proceeding.

Walton has not yet ruled on the government's motion to keep the information out.

Clemens is accused of lying to Congress when he said he never used performance-enhancing drugs. McNamee, the pitcher's former strength coach, says he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone multiple times, which Clemens denies.

In a motion to "preclude evidence, comment and argument regarding government witnesses' prior bad acts," the government seeks to exclude the following:

-A 2001 incident during a Yankees road trip to Florida in which police reports said McNamee was seen having sex with an incoherent woman in a St. Petersburg hotel pool. The woman told police she could not remember what happened, and the date rape drug GHB was found in her system. McNamee, who was never charged, denied he assaulted the woman but instead told police he was trying to pull her out of the pool and rescue her from drowning. But he lied to investigators, including denying he worked for the Yankees, and falsely denying knowing how the woman became incoherent. The prosecution says that with the exception of the false statements to police, the 2001 incident is inadmissible.

-McNamee's "purported misconduct" as a New York City police officer. The prosecution says that in his unpublished manuscript, McNamee admits to being docked 30 days' pay for losing his gun. He also says he "tried to create some humor to get a good laugh" by placing a discarded beer can in a dead woman's hand at a crime scene. While he wasn't disciplined, he admitted falsely telling a supervisor he didn't touch anything at the scene.

"While distasteful conduct, Mr. McNamee's action of posing the dead woman's body with the beer can does not in any way relate to Mr. McNamee's ability to tell the truth," the prosecutors argue in their filing. McNamee admits that he was disciplined for an incident that remains blacked out in the pleading but that he said he "did everything by the book that night" and that a desk sergeant failed to adequately oversee the prisoner.

Other areas the government seeks to keep out are McNamee's alleged drug abuse, past financial difficulties and potential tax liabilities.

The Clemens team has said it will try to undermine McNamee's credibility as a witness, including suggesting he had financial motives for his claims about injecting Clemens with steroids and HGH.

The trial resumes Monday after a five-day break.

---
GET THE LATEST NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS FROM ABCNEWS.COM

---
Get Eyewitness News Delivered

Facebook | Twitter | Newsletters | Text Alerts

(Copyright ©2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Get more U.S. & World News »

roger clemens, trial, u.s. & world news
// perform JavaScript after the document is scriptable.OTV.common.modules.promoCarousel.promoCarouselInit("/wabc/xml?id=5758260&ptnr=promoCarousel");

View the original article here

Thursday, 14 July 2011

Judge declares mistrial in Roger Clemens case

By NEDRA PICKLER and JESSE J. HOLLANDWASHINGTON -- The judge declared a mistrial Thursday in baseball star Roger Clemens' perjury trial after prosecutors showed to jurors evidence that he had ruled would be out of bounds in the case.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said Clemens could not be assured a fair trial after prosecutors showed jurors evidence against his orders in the second day of testimony.

Walton scheduled a Sept. 2 hearing to determine whether to hold a new trial. He told jurors he was sorry to have wasted their time and spent so much taxpayer money, only to call off the case.

"There are rules that we play by and those rules are designed to make sure both sides receive a fair trial," Walton told the jury, saying such ground rules are critically important when a person's liberty is at stake.

He said that because prosecutors broke his rules, "the ability with Mr. Clemens with this jury to get a fair trial with this jury would be very difficult if not impossible."

Prosecutors suggested the problem could be fixed with an instruction to the jury to disregard the evidence, but Walton seemed skeptical. He said he could never know what impact the evidence would have during the jury's deliberations "when we've got a man's liberty at interest."

"I don't see how I un-ring the bell," he said.

Walton interrupted the prosecution's playing of a video from Clemens' 2008 testimony before Congress and had the jury removed from the courtroom. Clemens is accused of lying during that testimony when he said he never used performance-enhancing drugs during his 24-season career in the Major Leagues.

One of the chief pieces of evidence against Clemens is testimony from his former teammate and close friend, Andy Pettitte, who says Clemens told him in 1999 or 2000 that he used human growth hormone.

Clemens has said that Pettitte misheard him. Pettitte also also says he told his wife, Laura, about the conversation the same day it happened.

Prosecutors had wanted to call Laura Pettitte as a witness to back up her husband's account, but Walton had said he wasn't inclined to have her testify since she didn't speak directly to Clemens.

Walton was angered that in the video prosecutors showed the jury, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., referred to Pettitte's conversation with his wife.

"I think that a first-year law student would know that you can't bolster the credibility of one witness with clearly inadmissible evidence," Walton said.

He said it was the second time that prosecutors had gone against his orders - the other being an incident that happened during opening arguments Wednesday when assistant U.S. attorney Steven Durham said that Pettite and two other of Clemens' New York teammates, Chuck Knoblauch and Mike Stanton, had used human growth hormone.

Walton said in pre-trial hearings that such testimony could lead jurors to consider Clemens guilty by association. Clemens' defense attorney objected when Durham made the statement and Walton told jurors to disregard Durham's comments about other players.

There was no objection from Clemens' team during the Laura Pettitte reference, but the judge stopped the proceedings, called attorneys up to the bench and spoke to them privately for several minutes. Hardin pointed out during that time, the video remained frozen on the screen in front of jurors with a transcript of what was being said on the bottom.

Cummings had been quoting from Laura Pettitte's affidavit to the committee. "I, Laura Pettitte, do depose and state, in 1999 or 2000, Andy told me had a conversation wth Roger Clemens in which Roger admitted to him using human growth hormones," the text on the screen read.

The judge eventually told the jurors to leave while he discussed the issue with attorneys in open court.

"Government counsel should have been more cautious," Walton said, raising his voice and noting that the case has already cost a lot of taxpayer money. He then left the courtroom and said he would go consult with a colleague on what to do.

roger clemens, steroid, sports

View the original article here