Thanks to a judge’s ruling in the case, Barry Bonds is likely to avoid playing baseball in some prison yard. Bad for the inmates who could have picked up some pointers on hitting the long ball. Good for Bonds. But the U.S. Attorney’s office still would like to see Bonds behind bars and is fighting to make that happen. Here’s the latest.

By Lance Williams
San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge abused her discretion when she made alleged positive steroid tests and other key evidence off-limits in Barry Bonds’ perjury trial, prosecutors said Monday.

Bonds’ prosecutors asked the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reinstate the evidence, which Judge Susan Illston banned from the case Feb. 19, on the grounds that there was no proof the tests had anything to do with the former Giants star.

Bonds, 44, holder of baseball’s career home run record, had been scheduled to go to trial in March, accused of lying under oath about his use of steroids to the grand jury that investigated the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative steroids scandal. The judge’s ruling gutted the government’s case, and prosecutors took the unusual step of delaying the trial indefinitely while pursing an appeal.

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Read Government’s Appeal

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