(Wall Street Journal) — Baseball home-run king Barry Bonds goes on trial Monday in the highest-profile case stemming from a seven-year government probe of sports doping that has ensnared Olympic gold medalists, track coaches, a lawyer and a chemist. Mr. Bonds is charged with making false statements to a grand jury and obstruction of justice for allegedly lying to a federal grand jury in 2003. Mr. Bonds denies the charges. He testified he never knowingly took steroids, never accepted human growth hormone from a personal trainer and never allowed anyone other than medical personnel to give him injections. If convicted, Mr. Bonds could face five years or more in federal prison. Either way, his single-season and lifetime home-run records may never escape the shadow of a criminal case. A lawyer for the 46-year-old Mr. Bonds, Ted Cassman, declined to comment. Mr. Bonds’s case hinges on whether prosecutors can prove the former San Francisco Giants slugger took steroids and that he knew what they were when he was taking them. The case was delayed two years after the government unsuccessfully appealed a judge’s decision to bar key evidence that included positive drug tests.
