Feds end prosecution of Bonds without a conviction

The legal saga of former San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds, accused eight years ago of perjury and obstruction in a steroids investigation, came to an official end Tuesday.

Barry Bonds, pictured on July 10, finally escaped the government’s charge that he obstructed a steroid investigation on Tuesday.

Per Maura Dolan of the Los Angeles Times, Bonds’ conviction was overturned in April 2015 by a federal appeals court, and it means that federal prosecutors failed to get convictions on every charge brought against the former MVP and Roger Clemens.

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“The finality of today’s decision gives me great peace”, Bonds, who turns 51 on Friday, said in a statement. The Justice Department declined to ask the Supreme Court to review a reversal of Bonds’ felony conviction from 2011.

Bonds served his one-month, electronic-monitoring sentence at his California home while his lawyers appealed the conviction that was eventually overturned in April. The others who were charged, including athletes, Anderson and other trainers, BALCO officials and a chemist, all pleaded guilty or were convicted at trial of charges of either illegal distribution of drugs or lying before the grand jury.

Bonds was called before a grand jury investigating BALCO in 2003.

Bonds has been eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame for the last three years, without ever getting close. A player must garner at least 75 percent of the vote to be elected.

Bonds, now 50, is baseball’s all-time home run king with 762.

Though Bonds is no longer a felon, many fans – and even some baseball peers – have concluded that he cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs.

In his 2003 testimony, Bonds admitted to the grand jury he had taken substances known as “the clear” and “the cream” from Anderson but said he thought they were flaxseed oil and arthritis ointment. The San Francisco slugger left baseball after the 2007 season, ending his career with a record 762 career home runs, surpassing Hank Aaron’s long-standing record of 755.