An American judge ordered Barry Bonds’ grand-jury testimony to be unsealed and asked prosecutors to re-write the perjury case against Major League Baseball’s home-run king, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. Judge Susan Illston ordered the unsealing of Bonds’ 2003 testimony during the federal court hearing at the US District Court building.
She also criticized the prosecutors’ four-count indictment, saying it needed to be revised because it contained alleged offences that were improperly lumped together.
Bonds’ lawyers tried Friday to get Illston to throw out the case by claiming prosecutors had asked Bonds “ambiguous” questions over four years ago when the former San Francisco Giant slugger testified before a grand jury probe into the BALCO steroid scandal.
Bonds did earn a minor victory by getting the judge to admit there were flaws in the indictment.
Illston did not give a date for the testimony to be unsealed but she did set another hearing for March 21.
Bonds faces four counts of perjury and one count of obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury about his use of performance enhancing drugs.
Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s revered all-time home run record by hitting his 756th career blast last August 7 against the Washington Nationals.
He finished the 2007 season with 762 career home runs.
The 43-year-old is a free agent after the Giants let him go at the end of last season, and he is not currently on any team’s roster.
Source: The Associated Press