Judge rules Barry Bonds jury can't listen to tape - ESPN

"It's barely intelligible and what can be heard is irrelevant."

That about sums up the government's case in a nutshell as the prosecution rests after ten days of testimony.

Let's review.
The governments own witnesses seem to contradict each other (Ting and Hoskins) in a bizarre display. Talk about shooting yourselves in the foot.

So we have at least one witness lying in an attempt to prove the governments case that Bonds lied. Might have wanted to check and double check the testimony before you send your witnesses to the stand. You only had eight some odd years to prepare.

What seemed like the most damning evidence from the mistress and former players still leaves more loose ends than one of grandmas quilts. I'm not sure how the government expects all twelve jurors to make the formidable leap required to prove their case.

So maybe now this demonstrates why the case took eight or so years to bring to court. These guys might end up making the O.J. prosecutors look competent by comparison. Somewhere in Texas, Roger Clemens and his legal team have to be ROFLTAO. Perhaps not though, his case has some different dynamics attached to it. But maybe if this one goes down in flames, the government will decide to get out of the game of policing baseball.

It will be interesting to see if the defense puts up any more than a token defense. Maybe try to impeach one or two pieces of testimony it deems damaging. But it doesn't sound as if they have to do much more than go to closing arguments, throw up their hands and say "We waited eight years and wasted x number of taxpayer dollars, FOR THIS?"

We shall see.

Judge rules Barry Bonds jury can't listen to tape - ESPN:

"SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge has barred the jury in the Barry Bonds' perjury trial from hearing a newly discovered tape recording prosecutors say bolsters their case that the slugger knowingly took steroids.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled the recording inadmissible because 'it's barely intelligible' and what can be heard is irrelevant."

The tape was a conversation between Bonds' orthopedic surgeon Dr. Arthur Ting and his former business partner, Steve Hoskins. Hoskins secretly recorded the conversation in 2003.

Prosecutors had hoped to use the tape to win back some of the momentum they lost when Ting severely damaged Hoskins' credibility.

Ting last week flatly denied Hoskins' testimony that the pair had about 50 conversations about Bonds and steroids. Ting said the two never discussed that topic.

Two transcripts of the tape released by the prosecution and defense indicate Hoskins brings up newspaper articles about a federal raid on a Bay Area lab, and the possible implications for Bonds. Ting replies with mostly short answers to Hoskins' statements.