Bonds' trainer asks to withdraw guilty plea in steroid case

October 4, 2006

Barry Bonds' personal trainer wants to withdraw his guilty plea because prosecutors based their steroid distribution case on an illegal recording, his lawyer said yesterday in a court hearing.

Greg Anderson, 40, jailed for refusing to testify before a grand jury probing whether Bonds committed perjury, has already served a three-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to the steroid charge.

But attorney Mark Geragos said that an illegal tape recording of Anderson was the basis for the federal case against him in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative scandal. A federal prosecutor acknowledged having a tape of Anderson discussing Bonds and undetectable performance-enhancing drugs at least a month before the trainer's guilty plea last year, but said Geragos' claims were “ludicrous and speculative.”

“That's speculation by Mr. Geragos. He's wrong,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Nedrow.