Clemens files defamation suit against trainer

The pitcher claims Brian McNamee’s statements were untrue.

NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Clemens beat Brian McNamee to court, filing a defamation suit against the former trainer who claimed to have injected him with performance-enhancing drugs.

Clemens filed the suit Sunday night in Harris County District Court in Texas, listing 15 alleged statements McNamee made to the baseball drug investigator George Mitchell. Clemens claimed the statement were “untrue and defamatory.”

“According to McNamee, he originally made his allegations to federal authorities after being threatened with criminal prosecution if he didn’t implicate Clemens,” according to the 14-page petition.

Richard Emery, one of McNamee’s lawyers, said he would seek to remove the case to U.S. District Court in Houston, then to possibly shift it to federal court in Brooklyn.

“I think it’s dismissible on its face. I think it’s a press release for Clemens and his career,” Emery said. “The case is shoddy at best. The prosecutors acted completely professionally in this case. This is a very odd thing for me to be saying, but it’s the truth. Sometimes you are bound by the truth.”

The suit states that when McNamee told others that when he first was interviewed by federal law enforcement last June, he denied Clemens had used steroids or human growth hormone. The suit quotes McNamee as saying he was pressured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella and IRS Special Agent Jeff Novitzky — key members of the BALCO prosecution — to implicate Clemens. The suit did not attribute where the quote from McNamee was obtained.

“After this exchange, and for the first time in his life, McNamee stated that he had injected Clemens with steroids in 1998, 2000 and 2001,” the suit said. “Following his recantation, McNamee has relayed that he magically went from a ‘target’ in a federal criminal drug investigation to a mere ‘witness,’ so long as he continued to ‘toe the line.’ ”

McNamee said he was willing to go to jail and repeatedly asked the pitcher “what do you want me to do?” during a 17-minute telephone conversation last week.

A recording of last Friday’s conversation between Clemens and McNamee was played Monday at the start of Clemens’ news conference. Clemens’ lawyers said that because McNamee didn’t deny Clemens’ claims that he never used steroids, it amounted to proof that Clemens was telling the truth.

“I’ll go to jail, I’ll do whatever you want,” McNamee said during the conversation.

“I need somebody to tell the truth,” Clemens said.

During the tape, McNamee never said he lied when he told baseball investigator George Mitchell last year that he injected Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone in 1998, 2000 and 2001.

“I’m in your corner,” McNamee said. “I’d also like not to go to jail, too.”

Clemens was mostly expressionless while the tape played, even when McNamee said, “You treated me like family.”