Posted on 03/24/2006 6:17:51 PM PST by nickcarraway
A judge on Friday denied a bid by Barry Bonds' lawyers to block the authors and publishers from making money on a book claiming the San Francisco Giants slugger used steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs.
Bonds' attorneys sued the book's authors, publisher Gotham Books, the San Francisco Chronicle and Sports Illustrated, which published excerpts of the book, saying they should be held liable for publishing "illegally obtained grand jury transcripts."
They sought a temporary restraining order on all profits from the book.
Judge James Warren denied that request. The lawsuit stands, although the judge said he thought it had little chance of success and the writers had raised "serious first amendment issues."
The book, "Game of Shadows," by Chronicle reporters Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, is based partly on grand jury testimony from a federal investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative, or BALCO, where Bonds and several other major league players allegedly obtained performance-enhancing drugs.
The book hit shelves on Thursday, the same day Bonds' attorneys said they would sue the writers, Gotham, the Chronicle and Sports Illustrated.
"We are seeking to have the credibility and integrity of the grand jury proceeding restored," Bonds lawyer Alison Berry Wilkinson told the judge during a 40-minute hearing in San Francisco County Superior Court.
Bonds did not attend the hearing.
Another Bonds lawyer, Michael Rains, said laws prohibit people from possessing grand jury materials unless they are unsealed and that the defendants have no right to profit from illegally obtained material. He said Fainaru-Wada and Williams, "have made a complete farce of the criminal justice system."
Jonathan Donnellan, a lawyer for the two writers and Hearst Corp., which owns the Chronicle, said the writers and publishers are protected by the First Amendment and that the suit "takes direct aim at protected speech."
The lawyers sued under California's unfair competition law.
"It's a very ill-conceived lawsuit," said Bruce Simon, chairman of the California State Bar Commission's Committee on Unfair Competition and Antitrust Law. "I think the judge obviously sees that."
Earlier Friday, in a separate court action, Bonds' lawyers also sent a letter to a federal judge, demanding that Fainaru-Wada and Williams be held in contempt of court.
"The true victim is not Barry Bonds, but the sanctity and integrity of the grand jury process," the attorneys wrote to U.S. District Judge Susan Illston.
The book claims Bonds used steroids, human growth hormone, insulin and other banned substances for at least five seasons beginning in 1998.
"We certainly stand by our reporters and the reporting they did for us," Chronicle executive vice president and editor Phil Bronstein said Thursday. "Nothing that's happened will change that."
"We fully stand behind our reporting of the book," Fainaru-Wada said.
Lisa Johnson, a spokeswoman for publisher Gotham Books, said the publisher supports both authors. "We at Gotham Books are shocked that Barry Bonds would take such a foolish step," she said. "Any respected First Amendment lawyer in America knows that his claim is nonsense."
Rains said Bonds will not comment directly on the lawsuit but strongly supports the case.
"His bat speaks for himself and he's not going to speak on this action and this book," Rains said.
I live in FRisco and know lots of Giants fans. Yesterday there was much talk of this suit. Everyone assumed the suit targeted the veracity of the claims in the book. Reading this article, it seems the suit is instead about the provenance of those claims. Very strange. If the claims are true, that is if Bonds cheated and then lied about it, then who really cares whether these authors violated grand jury secrecy? (OK, so some authorities somewhere should look into that, but I'm talking about the general public here.) If Bonds is a cheater and a liar, then he's a cheater and a liar.
Fake but Accurate?
More like "Purloined but accurate."
I take it that you are not for Affirmative Action?
Well, as it happens I'm not, though I don't see that as relevant to this case.
Just like other situations, he is given a pass as far as making accomplishments on his own merits.
He probably will also be voted into the Hall of Fame since this isn't nearly as serious as betting on a few games, you know. /Sarc.
exactly. Nothing to Refute the charges, just alawsuit to try and stop the book by saying they used illegally obtained grand jury testimony. Bonds lawyer even said that they did not have enough for a slander or libel lawsuit.
Bonds' lawyers took great pains to point out that they didn't want to get into the truth of what the authors wrote.
They were acting only in the interest of law and order.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
For $500 an hour, lawyers will litigate, perform fellatio, or clean out sewers with their tongues.
I'm no fan of Barry Bonds, but on the merits of this specific lawsuit I'm on his side. If the grand jury proceedings were supposed to be kept secret under the law, then there is no reason why the authors of this book shouldn't be facing criminal charges of their own.
The proceedings of the Grand Jury are secret as far as the jury itself and the government are concerned. The witnesses have no obligation to keep thier personal testimony secret.
If a witness wants to release thier grand jury testimony to the press they have every right to.
As far as I can tell, the authors of this book used the testimony from witnesses other than Bonds to compile thier "evidence".
If what you say is correct, that Bonds is a cheat and a liar, then I see MLB stripping him of all his records and banning him for life.
If that's the case, then I stand corrected. I had assumed they used his testimony, too.
What is interesting to me is that he's suing about the grand jury testimony, and not for libel.
The authors make a strong and explicit claim that Bonds is a steroid user. If the claims are untrue, he should easily win a libel suit.
However, the truth is not libel :)
There is a better chance of Baseball descending into Freakball, that Bonds being banned..
The sanctity and integrity of MLB is once again under serious assault...
Semper Fi
I'm not sure about stripping all of his records. I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject but others (incl. George Will?) have said that it is problematic to take out Bonds' hits because of the ripple effects this would have throughout the rest of the records (such as the ERAs of the pitchers he faced, etc.).
True. But, does that have any relevance to whether the book can be published or not?
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