Friday, August 20, 2010
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
Seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for allegedly lying to Congress about using steroids and growth hormone. The criminal case writes a new chapter in one of Major League Baseball’s worst scandals, the rampant use of performance enhancing drugs.
A six-count indictment alleges that Clemens obstructed a congressional inquiry with 15 different statements that he made under oath in 2008, including denials that he had ever used steroids or human growth hormone. The indictment says that he lied and committed perjury regarding the same matters.
The former pitcher and his former trainer, Brian McNamee, testified under oath at a 2008 hearing before a House committee and contradicted each other about whether Clemens had used performance-enhancing drugs.
McNamee has told federal agents, baseball investigator George Mitchell and the committee that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.
Clemens has maintained that McNamee was lying, and said so under oath before the committee. “I couldn’t tell you the first thing about it,” he testified when asked about human growth hormone. “I never used steroids. Never performance-enhancing steroids.”
“As far as we’re concerned, it’s vindication,” Earl Ward, one of McNamee’s attorneys, said of the indictment.
The case was assigned to U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton, who presided over the perjury and obstruction trial of Vice President Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. No date has been set for Clemens’ initial court appearance.
“Roger is looking forward to his day in court,” Clemens lawyer Rusty Hardin told a news conference. “He is happy this has finally happened. We have known for some time this was going to happen. We’ll let everything get taken care of in court.”
In a statement on his Twitter page, Clemens said, “I never took HGH or steroids. And I did not lie to Congress.”
Hardin said federal prosecutors made Clemens a plea offer but he rejected it. Hardin declined to comment on details of the proposed plea deal — which ordinarily involves admitting to a crime while avoiding the scenario of a multiple-count indictment as happened in the Clemens case. Clemens faces a combined maximum sentence of 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine if convicted on all charges. However, under U.S. sentencing guidelines, he would probably face no more than 15 to 21 months in prison.
Hardin said he is aware that many people have suggested that Clemens should have followed in the steps of other athletes and pre-empted all this by admitting he took steroids.
“But the problem is nobody ever talks about what he should have done if he didn’t do it,” said Hardin. “And he didn’t do it and he’s adamant about that and always has been. Today is just another continuing part of that saga.”
In his defiant testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in 2008, Clemens said, “I’ve been accused of something I’m not guilty of. ... I have never taken steroids or HGH.”
Longtime Clemens friend and New York Yankees teammate Andy Pettite told congressional investigators that Clemens confided to him that he had used HGH. Clemens said Pettite was wrong.
“I believe Andy has misheard” the conversation, Clemens responded. He said he had simply mentioned to Pettite a TV show about three older men who used HGH to get back their quality of life.
“When a witness, such as Roger Clemens, lies, as I think he did, he should be held accountable,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the House committee’s chairman at the time of the baseball star’s testimony. Waxman said the indictment will “help end the use of steroids and performance enhancing drugs in professional sports.”
Former Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, who was the top Republican on the House panel, called the indictment “a self-inflicted wound” by Clemens.
“Clemens was not under subpoena. He came voluntarily. He wanted to come to the committee and clear his name,” Davis said. “And I sat there in the office with (committee chairman) Henry Waxman and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t lie.”’
Davis added: “I did not want to refer this to Justice, but we didn’t have any choice.”