Lawyers for Barry Bonds swear that they’re just interested in the articles, but we’ve all used that excuse. We’re just a few weeks from March Madness, and by that I mean Barry Bonds’ federal perjury trial, which begins March 21. During a pretrial hearing on Monday, prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston to bar the use of a 2007 issue of Playboy Magazine, in which nude photos of Kimberly Bell appear. The government claims that Bonds’ lawyers would use it to undermine Bell’s credibility.
Twelve Angry Men? More like 12 frustrated men! (Rimshot). JUDGE: “My ruling is, no Playboy.” BONDS ATTORNEY: “Um, how about the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue?”
Look, I’m all for pornography in the jury box, especially if it leads to several jokes about “opening briefs.” But isn’t the Hef out of the bag now, so to speak? Now that this story’s out, every prospective juror is going to be scrambling to look at this particular issue of Playboy, plus several others for “research purposes.” The issue in question not only shows Bell nude, but also has an interview with her concerning Bonds. It will be interesting to see how the judge rules.
From the New York Daily News:
Prosecutors also asked Illston to bar the defense from introducing statements made to investigators and the BALCO grand jury by 24 people, including NFL stars Jerry Rice, Terrell Owens and Bill Romanowski as well as former major leaguers Gary Sheffield, Benito Santitago and Jason Giambi.
Meanwhile, lawyers on both sides want the judge to sternly warn jurors not to use social networking during the trial.
When a former mistress takes the stand to describe the physical changes to Barry Bonds’ body during the years prosecutors claim he was on the juice, sitting jurors could be awfully tempted to tweet the unsavory details.
And they might find it hard to resist googling “Greg Anderson” when the now famously uncooperative steroid supplier is a no-show at trial.
[A warning] probably won’t go far enough for defense lawyer Doron Weinberg, whose recent experiences at trial have him calling for more concrete efforts to wall jurors off from the internet.
“The problem with the Internet is that anybody can post anything,” he said. Jurors “can get information that is partisan and hateful.”
And of course reading Playboy on your smart phone while sending trial tidbits to the National Enquirer and texting Bill Romanowski is right out.
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Prosecutors in Barry Bonds trial ask judge to prevent use of Playboy material against Kimberly Bell [New York Daily News]
Barry Bonds trial may test tweeting jurors [Law.com]
