I know she was hoping for 25 to life in Supermax...
Judge gives Bonds house arrest, then delays it
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Baseball superstar Barry Bonds will remain free while he appeals his conviction for giving misleading testimony before a grand jury investigating steroid use in sports.
A federal judge handed Bonds a sentence of 30 days of house arrest, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service on Friday — then delayed the sentence pending an appeal likely to take a year or more.
Major League Baseball's career home runs leader, Bonds is the highest-profile defendant — and the last — to come out of the government's investigation of the steroids distribution ring built around the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, founded by Victor Conte.
Ten other people were convicted of various charges. Six of them, including track star Marion Jones, were ensnared for lying to grand jurors, federal investigators or the court. Others, including Bonds' personal trainer Greg Anderson, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution charges.
Bonds was one of two former baseball superstars to stand trial in doping-related cases this year. The trial of pitcher Roger Clemens was halted after just two days in July because prosecutors used inadmissible evidence. U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton has set a new trial for April 17.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston also on Friday put on hold a $4,000 fine against Bonds for his obstruction of justice conviction arising from a grand jury appearance eight years ago.
Prosecutors wanted the home run king to spend 15 months in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella argued that home confinement wasn't punishment enough, "for a man with a 15,000 square foot house with all the advantages." Bonds lives on a nearly two-acre (0.8 hectare) estate in Beverly Hills.
Parrella called the sentence a "slap on the wrist" and the fine "almost laughable" for a former star who made millions of dollars during his career. Parrella had sought 15 months in prison, disagreeing with the judge's conclusion that the crime was "aberrant" behavior for an otherwise law-abiding Bonds who has donated money and time to charities.
Curiously, Bonds is in good company as a conservative icon with Bill Bennett who combined being Reagan's "Drug Czar" with hopeless drug addiction (he was a smoker) and a moronic scold with a gambling addiction which he, predictably, lied about.
I've been tied up in a wild police arbitration all day (where the union lawyer ended up c alling himself as a rebuttal witness) and missed this. While I don't love the sentence, it is consistent with the judges other sentences in similar cases. And the cheated isn't going into the HOF, which is what really matters to me.
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké
I apologize, Joe, I happened to see the story and posted without seeing your thread...
As a gentleman who understands the proper forum etiquette for this sort of situation, please let me request that all further follow ups on the topic be directed to Joe's thread:
