USA ends prosecution of Barry Bonds without conviction

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday dropped a almost 10-year prosecution of former San Francisco Giant Barry Bonds over performance-enhancing drugs, according to multiple reports.

After more than a decade of being investigated by the federal government, Barry Bonds no longer has a criminal record.

The decade-long investigation and prosecution of Bonds for obstruction of justice ended quietly with the DOJ’s one-paragraph court filing announcing it would not ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a lower court’s reversal of his felony conviction.

To view the full article, register now. Instead, the DOJ said the reversal of Bonds’ conviction would stand. Bonds attorney Dennis Riordan decline comment early Tuesday, saying he needed to speak with his client before discussing the case publicly. However, Bonds’ legal victory likely will not remove the tarnish attached to his on-the-field accomplishments.

Bonds was convicted and sentenced to 30 days of home confinement, two years of probation, 250 hours of community service in youth-related activities and a $4,000 fine after being convicted in 2011. The court held the answer was not “material” to the intensive federal investigation into the use of performance enhancing drugs in the San Francisco Bay area.

During Bonds’ trial, other ballplayers, including baseball stars such as former Oakland A’s and New York Yankees slugger Jason Giambi, were hauled into court to recount their relationship with BALCO as prosecutors tried to prove that Bonds misled the grand jury about steroid use and his ties to BALCO and Anderson. He told the jury personal trainer Greg Anderson never injected him with PEDs.

Despite that, he has not come close to being elected into the Hall of Fame due to his PED ties.

Bonds and his defense team of six lawyers appealed, first to a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit and then to a rarely convened 11-judge panel of the same court.

Bonds ended his career after the 2007 season with 762 homers, surpassing the record of 755 that Hank Aaron set from 1954-76.