Jury selection resumes in Clemens trial

WASHINGTON -- Former baseball slugger Barry Bonds and well-publicized allegations that he used steroids cast a shadow over the second day of jury selection in the retrial of Roger Clemens on charges he lied to Congress about his own use of steroids and human growth hormones.

Three potential jurors told the court Tuesday that they recognized the name of Bonds, who is listed as a possible government witness and who was convicted last year of obstruction of justice for lying to a San Francisco grand jury investigating steroid use.

One of the possible jurors, a former banker and the wife of a retired State Department official who said she grew up on Long Island, said she recognized Bonds' name, though she does not follow sports. The jurors are not identified by name.

"He was in the news for steroids," she said. "It seemed to me he kept playing and hitting home runs."

Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, raised concerns that possible jurors might carry over their feelings toward Bonds to Clemens. But he failed to get U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to strike a graphic artist who strongly condemned Bonds.

"I do believe he did use drugs, and I believe if he had been forthcoming about it, he would not have wasted taxpayer money," the potential juror said. "I think it was as simple as, 'Step up to the plate and be a man about it.' "

The artist said he could keep an open mind about the guilt or innocence of Clemens. Walton added him to a slowly filling pool of 36 qualified jurors that the attorneys will trim to the final 12 members and four alternates.

Walton said Tuesday that jury selection was taking longer than anticipated and might not be done this week, pushing opening statements in the trial to next week.

By the end of the day, 15 people had been accepted as possible jurors. Most said they knew little or nothing about baseball.

One woman said she has been unemployed for nine years, and can't remember what she did in the 1980s and 1990s. Another woman said she is a college board member who retired after working as a U.S. Senate staffer, a deputy assistant Treasury secretary and vice president for communications at a large media company.

Clemens, a former star pitcher for the Yankees, is facing three counts of making false statements, two counts of perjury and one of obstruction of Congress. All are related to his denial of performance-enhancing drug use at a congressional hearing four years ago.

Bonds, who broke the single-season and career home run records, was convicted a year ago on one of five counts arising from a grand jury's investigation into a steroid-producing laboratory. In December, he was sentenced to two years' probation and six months of home confinement. He is appealing his conviction.