Indictment Is Strike Two Against Roger Clemens

As I watched highlights of Roger Clemens testifying before Congress yesterday, it occurred to me that … the more he said, the more he incriminated himself – not only on the settled charge of taking illegal performance enhancing drugs, but also on the looming charge of perjury and obstruction of justice.

(Forget the Hall of Fame, Clemens may have played his way into Prison, The iPINIONS Journal, February 14, 2008)

This quote indicates why I was not at all surprised on Thursday when a federal grand jury indicted seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens on obstruction of justice, making false statements, and perjury – all stemming from his above-referenced testimony before Congress.

Nor am I surprised that Clemens remains in a state of denial about his steroid use:

He maintains that Andy Pettitte, his erstwhile best friend and starting pitcher for the New York Yankees, was simply mistaken when he testified that Clemens not only told him that he was on the juice but even offered advice on which steroids would be most effective to enhance his (Pettitte’s) performance on the mound.  Moreover, that Brian McNamee, his erstwhile trainer and chief accuser, was simply lying when he testified that he injected Clemens more than a dozen times with steroids and human growth hormone from 1998 to 2001.

The federal pen is filled, though, with self-righteous people like Clemens who become addicted to their own lies. 

Clemens was not under subpoena. He came voluntarily. He wanted to come to the committee and clear his name. And I sat there in the office with (committee chairman) Henry Waxman and said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t lie.

(Former Representative Tom Davis of Virginia, top Republican on Congressional panel before which Clemens testified, Associated Press, August 19, 2010)

Well, he did.

But it’s arguable that his lawyer was guilty of malpractice for sitting by and allowing Clemens to appear before Congress in an arrogant and inherently misguided attempt to “clear his name”. 

Now, however, this lawyer could redeem his professional reputation somewhat by prevailing upon Clemens to accept a plea deal. To be sure, any deal would require him to come clean about his use of steroids, but it would also greatly reduce the time he’d have to serve behind bars. 

In any case, his testimony was strike one; this indictment is strike two; and conviction at trial (or even a plea deal) will be the strike out that ends Clemens’ storied career – not with induction into the Hall of Fame but with incarceration in federal prison. 

By the way, the same fate awaits home-run king Barry Bonds, who goes on trial on similar charges in March:

Alas, despite his protestations of innocence, I have no doubt that just as domestic diva Martha Stewart was imprisoned – not for securities fraud, but for lying to a federal grand jury about it, so too will Bonds be imprisoned – not for taking steroids, but for lying to a federal grand jury about it.

(Bonds is indicted…, November 16, 2007)

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