Barry Bonds' Lawyers Seek to Bar Testimony From Jason Giambi, Others

Barry Bonds' defense team is seeking to exclude the testimony of free-agent slugger Jason Giambi and several former major leaguers who were clients of Bay Area Lab Co-Operative (BALCO) along with other evidence, according to a motion filed in U.S. District Court on Friday.

Jason Giambi, his brother Jeremy Giambi, Armando Rios, Benito Santiago and Bobby Estalella are on the prosecution's witness list for the perjury and obstruction of justice trial against Bonds, which is set to commence in March. Lawyers for baseball's all-time home run champ argued that since prosecutors lost an appeal -- a motion that has delayed the start of the trial by two years -- the testimony of the ballplayers should no longer be allowed to be heard by jurors.

"The government apparently plans to proceed as if it had won (the appeal)," Dennis Riordan, one of Bonds' lawyers, wrote in the filing made in San Francisco, where Bonds set single-season and career home run marks as a member of the Giants. "The government does not appear to recognize that the order -- which the government itself certified would have a substantial impact on the case -- does in fact require the government to alter its prosecution in substantial ways."

Instead, the U.S. Attorney's Office submitted a witness list in October that's basically unchanged from what it had for the initial start date of the trial in February 2009. Since Bonds' friend and former personal trainer Greg Anderson refused to testify, Judge Susan Illston ruled much of the evidence that allegedly linked Bonds to positive steroid tests was not admissible. An appeals court later affirmed Illston's ruling.

A message left Friday night at the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Jose, Calif., was not immediately returned.

Riordan wrote that the testimony of the ballplayers -- along with former NFL linebacker Larry Izzo and former BALCO vice president Jim Valente -- is "irrelevant as a consequence" of the ruling. Bonds' lawyers are also seeking to exclude log sheets from BALCO that purportedly show doping schedules along with other test results.

Bonds, who was first charged in November 2007, faces 10 counts of making false declarations to a grand jury and one count of obstruction of justice. He faces a maximum of several years in prison if convicted of all counts, although he could only get a few months of prison combined with some sort of probation if his case follows other BALCO convictions.

In a separate filing, Bonds' legal team asked for information why it didn't prosecute Steve Hoskins for allegedly forging Bonds' signature on memorabilia. (The allegation was made by Bonds months before he testified in front of the grand jury investigating BALCO in 2003.) Hoskins is slated to be one of the prosecution's star witnesses at trial since he apparently talked to Bonds, Anderson and others about steroids, including some conversations that were recorded.

"Hoskins received an important benefit from the government when it decided to not to prosecute him for crimes against Mr. Bonds and the public," Allen Ruby, another Bonds attorney, wrote in the filing.