(Fourth in a series about crime and
punishment)
The Feds promised to come after Barry Bonds with a bazooka, but
all they have marshaled to tarnish his Bazooka card is a BB
gun. Which makes this a Base Ball story, a Bad Boy story, a Big
Booboo story, not to mention a Bay Bridge story. In fact, the BB
gun just might be a blunderbuss, since he apparently blundered when
he bussed a certain ex-girlfriend who might be the government’s
starlet witness.
Yet to critics of overstepping prosecutors, this is another
disturbing case of “a show about nothing,” where a person is
charged with no crime other than the crime of lying about the crime
with which he is not being charged. This technique was used to jail
the domestic tycoon, Martha Stewart, who was convicted of denying
having illegally benefited from insider information in a stock
trade. The information that put her inside was her failure to admit
the crime for which she was not prosecuted.
On a grander scale, this ruse was employed to bring down I.
Lewis Libby, former aide to the Vice President. The affectionately
nicknamed “Scooter” found his training wheels yanked from under him
and wound up a Federal felon. His offense was to mislead
investigators about who leaked Valerie Plame’s CIA status to Robert
Novak and when. The leak itself was not considered fodder for an
indictment, but not showing a correct facility in responding to
investigators was enough to send him to a correctional
facility.
A bit of the same proved the undoing of newspaper magnate Conrad
Black. At least in his case the government got a minor fraud
conviction as well, but his main downfall was the putative
obstruction of justice. He was seen on videotape carting boxes out
of his office, without delegating same to his valet, and this
dramatic tableau convinced jurors he must have been engaged in
hiding something nasty.
Now this has become the weapon of choice in the long-running
Federal investigation of “sport doping.” Sure enough, those dopes
who play sports are falling into the same trap. First sprinter
Marion Jones pled guilty to two counts of lying to investigators
about steroid use. (Not to be confused with Marion Barry, the
useful crack addict who has the courage of his prior convictions.)
Her five Olympic medals were surrendered and her career is
effectively ended.
Now Barry (Bonds, not to be confused with Marion Barry, the
useful crack addict) has been indicted for perjury and obstruction,
granting a rare off-season boon for baseball writers. We will be
treated to a sibilant slew of saccharine sermons about sullied
sportsmanship. All this may be mostly true, but the credibility of
the authorities in bringing this complaint is somewhat attenuated
as well. It seems absurd that in case after case the proof for the
crime is deemed insufficient, yet the standard for determining the
defendant lied is taken as well met and the fellow is haled into
court.
Incidentally, had this system come into vogue a decade earlier,
Bill Clinton would definitely have been prosecuted in Federal
court. Kenneth Starr could have recommended obstruction of justice
charges for cases less tawdry, and thus more susceptible to a
successful impeachment. It would have been enough to show that
Webster Hubbell was given $700,000 worth of no-show jobs and that
he had been taped as promising he would never talk. Then
obstruction of justice would be proven.
Instead the technicality of not knowing what Hubbell was hiding
stymied Starr’s team (which included Amy St. Eve, now Conrad
Black’s sentencing judge). In today’s world, it might be enough to
just say that the very fact he refused to tell what he was hiding
constituted an obstruction of justice for whatever the heck it was.
After all, no one ever prosecutes for the actual charge anymore.
Justice is achieved when you tell the truth and they choose not to
arrest. When you usurp that choice, they will lock you up for the
rest of your natural life.
The evidence that Bonds lied in his grand jury testimony
includes a chart on which his trainer marked the dosages
administered to BB. Funnily enough, when Bonds began his career
with Pittsburgh, Bobby Bonilla was his equal as a player, then
later faded. Had they both gone to the trainer together they could
have each sloughed the BB chart off on the other. As for the
inadequate prosecutors who catch your words but not your actions,
perhaps they should try the Army and B all they can B.
[Author’s Note: In the last
installment, we mentioned the Dr. Sam Sheppard murder case and
the consensus that now deems him innocent. The definitive book on
this subject is The Wrong Man by James Neff, available on
Amazon for pennies and well worth the read.]
