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Baseball slugger Barry Bonds loses legal round over steroids book
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A San Francisco judge has rejected a demand by US baseball slugger Barry Bonds to strip profits from the people behind a newly-released book accusing him of illegal steroid use.
Lawyers for Bonds lost what was expected to be an initial courtroom skirmish with the authors and publisher of the book "Game of Shadows," which purports to chronicle the baseball star's behind-the-scenes doping.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren refused to issue an emergency order redirecting profits from book sales to charity or other worthy coffers.
Warren concluded there was no need for haste and there would be no irrevocable harm done by postponing any decision about rerouting book profits until after a fuller hearing at a later date.
"I'm not disappointed, because obtaining temporary restraining orders is not an easy chore," said Mike Rains, an attorney for Bonds.
Warren declined to address the merits of Bonds' case and expressed concern that lawyers might be using an indirect legal route to impinge on the constitutional rights of the people behind the book.
"Game of Shadows" hit bookstore shelves on Thursday and used supposedly confidential grand jury testimony by Bonds while depicting him as a heavy user of performance enhancing drugs.
Bonds' doping-induced transformation from lithe to muscular earned him the nickname "The Incredible Hulk" on his San Francisco baseball team and prompted jokes about "gamma radiation," according to the book.
Lawyers for Bonds had also argued in a letter to US District Court Judge Susan Illston that the authors and publisher broke the law by using grand jury transcripts.
Bonds' attorneys asked Illston to hold San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams in contempt of court along with publisher Gotham Books.
"The real victim here is the criminal justice system and the grand jury," Rains told AFP.
"If Barry couldn't rely on the fact his testimony was confidential, why should anybody go in there and give grand jury testimony if the guarantee of confidentiality means nothing?"
Lawyers for Bonds contended that the law assured him that grand jury testimony in the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) synthetic steroid probe several years ago would be secret.
Bonds denied steroid use in his grand jury testimony, but the book used other sources to say he used them routinely. Rains decried the sources in the book as "extortionists, liars and cheats."
The authors have vouched for the integrity of their research.
The defendants' lawyers fired back in court with a motion accusing Bonds of trying to hamstring them with a meritless "strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP)."
A court hearing will be held regarding the "anti-SLAPP" motion, which charged Bonds' court actions were intended to stymie free speech instead of make a legal point.
"That is absolutely ridiculous," Rains said. "If they were really interested in robust public debate on the topic of steroids, they would be giving the book away for free, not making money on it."
The seeking of contempt charges has been regarded by some as a way to attack the work without having to breach formidable legal standards for proving libel against public figures.
"We just wanted to deal with this issue first," Rains said, adding the option of a libel suit remained. "Because the media can be reckless with someone's life and reputation and that is not enough under the libel laws."
"There are stories published about movie stars fornicating with animals, and the authors aren't being sued. Why not? It is pretty tough to do."
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A San Francisco judge has rejected a demand by US baseball slugger Barry Bonds to strip profits from the people behind a newly-released book accusing him of illegal steroid use.
Lawyers for Bonds lost what was expected to be an initial courtroom skirmish with the authors and publisher of the book "Game of Shadows," which purports to chronicle the baseball star's behind-the-scenes doping.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren refused to issue an emergency order redirecting profits from book sales to charity or other worthy coffers.
Warren concluded there was no need for haste and there would be no irrevocable harm done by postponing any decision about rerouting book profits until after a fuller hearing at a later date.
"I'm not disappointed, because obtaining temporary restraining orders is not an easy chore," said Mike Rains, an attorney for Bonds.
Warren declined to address the merits of Bonds' case and expressed concern that lawyers might be using an indirect legal route to impinge on the constitutional rights of the people behind the book.
"Game of Shadows" hit bookstore shelves on Thursday and used supposedly confidential grand jury testimony by Bonds while depicting him as a heavy user of performance enhancing drugs.
Bonds' doping-induced transformation from lithe to muscular earned him the nickname "The Incredible Hulk" on his San Francisco baseball team and prompted jokes about "gamma radiation," according to the book.
Lawyers for Bonds had also argued in a letter to US District Court Judge Susan Illston that the authors and publisher broke the law by using grand jury transcripts.
Bonds' attorneys asked Illston to hold San Francisco Chronicle newspaper reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams in contempt of court along with publisher Gotham Books.
"The real victim here is the criminal justice system and the grand jury," Rains told AFP.
"If Barry couldn't rely on the fact his testimony was confidential, why should anybody go in there and give grand jury testimony if the guarantee of confidentiality means nothing?"
Lawyers for Bonds contended that the law assured him that grand jury testimony in the infamous Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative (BALCO) synthetic steroid probe several years ago would be secret.
Bonds denied steroid use in his grand jury testimony, but the book used other sources to say he used them routinely. Rains decried the sources in the book as "extortionists, liars and cheats."
The authors have vouched for the integrity of their research.
The defendants' lawyers fired back in court with a motion accusing Bonds of trying to hamstring them with a meritless "strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP)."
A court hearing will be held regarding the "anti-SLAPP" motion, which charged Bonds' court actions were intended to stymie free speech instead of make a legal point.
"That is absolutely ridiculous," Rains said. "If they were really interested in robust public debate on the topic of steroids, they would be giving the book away for free, not making money on it."
The seeking of contempt charges has been regarded by some as a way to attack the work without having to breach formidable legal standards for proving libel against public figures.
"We just wanted to deal with this issue first," Rains said, adding the option of a libel suit remained. "Because the media can be reckless with someone's life and reputation and that is not enough under the libel laws."
"There are stories published about movie stars fornicating with animals, and the authors aren't being sued. Why not? It is pretty tough to do."