Former baseball star continues to be linked to BALCO scandal.
US baseball’s all-time home run king Barry Bonds lost his appeal against a conviction for obstructing the course of justice.
A federal appeals court upheld the conviction which centered on Bonds’ testimony to a grand jury investigating the BALCO steroid scandal.
Bonds, a former slugger for the San Francisco Giants, owns the Major League Baseball record for most homers in a season with 73 in 2001 and the career mark with 762.
In 2011, he was charged with lying under oath and other violations when denying he had used performance-enhancing drugs before a grand jury hearing about the BALCO scandal in 2003.
But the only charge on which Bonds was convicted was for obstruction of justice when he gave a rambling, evasive answer about his life as the son of a baseball star when asked if his trainer, BALCO-linked Greg Anderson, had ever given him self-injectable substances.
A unanimous three-judge opinion by the appeal court rejected the arguments by Bonds and his attorneys that his testimony was “evasive, misleading and capable of influencing the grand jury to minimize the trainer’s role in the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs.”
Bonds faces two years on probation and 30 days of electronically monitored house arrest on the conviction. The seven-time National League Most Valuable Player also faces a $4,000 fine and 250 hours of community service.
Bonds could appeal the latest ruling to a larger panel of judges or the US Supreme Court.
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